One time in middle school I wore a skirt OVER a pair of bootcut jeans. I got dress coded because my skirt was too short. Even as a 6th grader I was dumbfounded because I was literally wearing perfectly acceptable pants, but with an extra layer.

I was told to go change. So I just pulled the skirt off right there and was like, okay is this better? And I was told yes. Idiots.

My former boss in HS did the same thing with us. We were lifeguards and she didn’t like us wearing the short shorts over our one piece bathing suits. So I took off the shorts and only had the bathing suit on like “Does this make more sense Tina!?”

I was a lifeguard at a camp when I was in high school too. For better or worse, I also happen to have pencil-eraser-size nipples and had amply large (but not huge) breasts at that age. So not only did I fill out my speedo but also, whenever I had to go from the pool outside to the Mess Hall or other air conditioned area, it was cold... and, well it showed! So this one middle aged lady supervisor seemed to not like that very much but there really wasn’t anything I could do to help it. She would comment often, pulling me aside like all serious. She asked me once if I was wearing a bra, which I always did if not in my swimsuit. She eventually wrote me up for it as a “dress code violation” but I wore the exact same suit as the other staff. Mine was the right size and in decent shape so idk what I was supposed to have done differently. Wear a bra with my swimsuit?!

I worked in the office of a manufacturing company. One of the women in the office told me that she hated going to the shop floor because it was cold and she felt like every man in the plant was staring at her nipples. I'm a woman, but I thought she was being crazy and needed to get a grip. Until I found out (over beers with some guys from the plant) that guys would purposely open the big bay doors in the shop so it was cold when women came from the office. WE ALL HAVE NIPPLES!!! Jeez. Imagine living in a free nipple world where women didn't feel violated because men didn't really notice or care?

This happened to me, and I didn't even have huge boobs. My friend was a member of the itty bitty titty committee, I wore about a 32B, which isn't that huge. When my friend had a much deeper v-neck on with major cleavage I was the one who was told to zip up my jacket. My shirt's neckline ended at my armpit level. No breast was exposed at all, it was all under shirt.

Guy here. When I was in school there was a dress code against tank tops for guys (but sleeveless was Ok for girls). One day I got sent home to change for wearing a tank top and came back in overalls with no shirt! I didn't get very far on campus with that stunt and got suspended for the day. A couple of months later the ban on tank tops for guys was lifted.

Oh my god. This just reminded me of a dress code experince in middle school. It was either during basketball or volleyball away games, we would wear gym shorts over our sweats/pajama pants. (Why, I have no idea.) For some reason, we ended up getting in trouble for this and were told we could no longer do it. Like come on, we were a bunch of 12-14 year old girls just having fun and being ridiculous!

I had a male supervisor tell me to stop wearing them because "you could see my underwear and it's absolutely disgusting"

I was wearing them under a flannel dress. You could not see my underwear. He even went on to describe me as wearing a black thong to other coworkers of mine. I was wearing booty shorts to cover my ass, which was under a pair of leggings, which was under a dress. But hey, cool, now we're talking about my underwear at work!

This was at a corporate coffee place! I got written up. He did not. 🤘🏻

One girl in my old office got banned from wearing leggings to work, when they're normally allowed, but that was bc she wore white see-through leggings and bulky neon underwear.
Most likely, you weren't making that same mistake- so I'm sorry. Leggings are just so confy

My work too. Because people started wearing them with loose shorts or T-shirt’s and at that point you are essentially wearing PJs to work. I think with some shorts they look okay but our rule is that your shirt must cover below your butt when comfortably standing- not pulling at it.

The PJs thing - yes! I work in a pretty casual office but the men wear polos or collared shirts, and the older (than us) women wear your standard office appropriate clothes, so when my coworker friends made a stink about the "no leggings unless it's under a dress/long tunic" rule I definitely rolled my eyes. They looked like they were going to the gym other than skipping athletic shoes.

Leggings are thick enough these days, but it just looks sloppy.

The PJs thing - yes! I work in a pretty casual office but the men wear polos or collared shirts, and the older (than us) women wear your standard office appropriate clothes,so when my coworker friends made a stink about the "no leggings unless it's under a dress/long tunic" rule I definitely rolled my eyes. They looked like they were going to the gym other than skipping athletic shoes.

So like a dress lol? finding “shirts” that go below a butt either makes them look like your dad’s nightshirt, or it’s just a full on mini dress. My mom had that rule for how I wore leggings too, an let me tell you it’s straight up impossible. (Especially for a tall girl like me). Eventually when I found a long baggy T-shirt “the right length” she told me to change again anyway because it looked inappropriately like a short dress at that point. Unless they’re see through, leggings are pants, end of. I had plenty of jeans that fit the exact same as leggings but somehow the pockets made them different?

Speaking as smeone who wears leggings almost every day of my life, but never to work; my opinion is that leggings are definitely different than fitted pants.

For me it's not that it's showing off your body or sexual in any way. Most good quality leggings or yoga pants these days are thick enough to wear as pants...to the gym, or even to the grocery store, or hanging out with family/friends. Not in a professional environment.

THAT actually seems reasonable/like she was not wearing workwear. Also if leggings aren't allowed bc people are supposed to be wearing slacks or skirts/dresses, that's fine, bc that seems more "leggings aren't business casual" than "leggings are too sExUaL." Leggings with a dress or a tunic seem perfectly reasonable in a casual work environment. The only reason I don't wear leggings to work is cause I like having my phone in my pocket.

I had similar experiences with bosses in offices. I've even had dress code rules made that I later found out only applied to me. All because I wore skinny jeans while a size three instead of a size ten which that they would automatically desexualize.

Urgh I got sent home because I was wearing leggings under my dress. When I'm at work I like to wear leggings under my dress so in case anything happens I'm covered. She sent me home and I put on a super long maxi dress and a cardigan. It looked cute, I've worn that outfit before at other jobs with the same dress code. She told me was going to send me home again to change and I told her I live an hour away and already drove home once and back. I wasn't going to do it again. She said fine and didn't send me home. I quit soon after that. Other girls wear leggings alone or even under skirts but nooooo I got in trouble. It is what it is though lol it was someone who recently became a supervisor, I swear the first opportunity she got she sent me home.

As “the boss” in a workplace that allows leggings I want to get rid of them so bad. Yoga pants are NOT leggings or black pants and leggings are NOT black pants. Some of the younger women have started wearing leggings with t shirts or shorter tops not covering their butt and at that point your just wearing PJs to work. Also people try to pull leggings off as black pants and wear them with black pants appropriate tops and it looks super unprofessional. Some people also have see through leggings and it looks awful. We also had to make a rule that leggings have to be a solid color and then had to come the rule where pants have to be solid because some people apparently don’t know the difference between leggings and pants. Ugh.

It’s honestly just one more thing I have to police and I’m tired of it.

As an employee I totally respect that. In my office the problem is that our dress code varies wildly! Like some of the guys wear suits and ties, whilst others wear jeans and t-shirts. Most of the women sit somewhere between casual and smart casual and each department/team is more or less strict. I’m one of many people with visible tattoos and piercings and dyed hair are fine as long they’re all smart/well kept. The only time I wear leggings at work (I still do now sometimes if I know my boss isn’t in) are plain, solid black and 100% not see through.

The biggest thing for me over the whole situation is the hypocrisy of it. The whole do as I say, not as I do. Especially over something seemingly as trivial as dress code. It’s hard to take my bosses comments on board when she’s sitting there doing the same thing she’s telling me off for.

Senior year of HS @ a Catholic school. Gets demerits for wearing the wrong socks bc they went around and did a sock check (forced boys to pull up pant leg to see if they were wearing dress socks or gym socks). Brother had gym socks bc he was 17 and who gives a shit bc they weren’t visible (and also brand new, clean, etc.)

Next week was parent/teacher night. Mom goes in and teacher comments/brags about how many boys they “caught” during the recent check.

Mom says “glad all of the drug use and teen pregnancy problems at Catholic School are handled so now we can give boys demerits for wearing socks.”

My (public) middle school was obsessed with sock stuff, though gym socks were allowed. In our case, we weren't allowed to wear colorful or patterned socks. They told us if we got a cut on our foot the dye would bleed into it and poison us. They never explained why this logic didn't apply anywhere else on our bodies. It's very bizarre in retrospect.

My (public) middle school was obsessed with sock stuff, though gym socks were allowed. In our case, we weren't allowed to wear colorful or patterned socks. They told is if we got a cut on our foot the dye would bleed into it and poison us. They never explained why this logic didn't apply anywhere else on our bodies. It's very bizarre in retrospect.

We were told in public junior high that we had to wear white gym socks with stripes not solid-colored socks because when we sweated the dye would bleed and poison our blood. This was in the early 1980s. I knew it was BS at the time but WHY did they tell us that? Because saying they simply wanted us to match would sound weird?!

Ok the part the dyes. Is kinda true. But more along the lines of the body may react badly to the dyes. Also white shows blood a lot easier. This is coming from a 8 grade first aid class. So I could be wrong. If so would someone correct me.

Man my Catholic school was super chill! The only thing I got dress coded for was a sweatshirt. We could wear any coat or sweater we wanted but sweatshirts/hoodies had to be the schools.

We had to wear jumpers and the girls hated the top piece so they always tucked it into their skirts which was against the rules but the staff didn’t care. We also weren’t allowed to wear leggings but the girls got away with it.

In the ninth grade, girls had to wear skirts and we can wear either red, grey, or black tights/knee-high socks. Instead of buying tights, most girls would wear plain black leggings with the over-the-knee socks on top. But, leggings were strictly forbidden. If a teacher saw you wearing the leggings/knee-high combo, you were sent to the office. I was threatened with a Saturday detention the 3rd time I was caught with them on.

They didn’t care that we were more covered (and warmer) with the leggings. Even the opaque tights we bought were still somewhat see-through. Rumor has it that this policy has not changed.

I went to a private boys school, we could wear whatever socks underneath our pants, as long as they were black, dark blue, or grey. That lesson sticks with me because white socks look horrible under dress pants.

I'm 6' now. Always was a tall kid. Fingertip rule is the ban of my existence. I can be fully covered and still have a full palm length below the end of my shorts. My femurs are just really long. Used to drive me crazy when I'd be wearing longer shorts then the short girls but I'd get in trouble for showing too much leg. Sorry I can't help that I just happen to have a lot of leg.

That shit used to piss me the fuck off. I was cursed with being 5'7 and having long ass gorilla arms whereas there were girls who were something like 5'1 and had short arms and LITERALLY HAD THEIR ASS HANGING OUT BECAUSE TECHNICALLY THAT WAS PASSING THE DRESS CODE. They were also popular and good pals with the teachers and deans so I'm sure that had something to do with it.

This happened to me! I was wearing a banana republic shell in high school and one of my teachers sent me to the office. I walk in and I told them I was dress coded. They look me up and down and told me I looked adorable and go back to class.

I feel ya. The only time I ever got a detention was because my shirt rode up while I was walking down the hallway and showed half an inch of my belly. I didn't even notice it until the Dean pointed it out and gave me a detention. Then she made me wear one of her sweatshirts that had teddy bears on it, like a grandma style lol.

In 8th grade we had a new assistant principle who caused chaos with dress code (like multiple parents complaining and being in the news level chaos) and one girl got told she couldnt wear tank top because straps too thin while another teacher was wearing exact same tank top (teacher was also pissed for her and pointed out same shirt).

I have very thick, wavy hair bordering on curly, and I have been dress coded occasionally for being "unkempt" just due to my natural hair. Usually I am told to "wash and brush" it which is ridiculous because it is washed and brushed. I end up tying it back so the texture isn't as obvious. Unsurprisingly, the people who dress code me always have thin, straight hair.

My mother would constantly tell me “put a brush through your hair!” My texture is similar to what you describe. Obviously that turns me into Simba. I was a sassy teenager, so I did just that. She was unamused.

God, same. I'm white like OP but I had problems like this too back in school. People asking if I washed my hair (of course I did), calling me "bush" and "bramble", my mom with straight, thin air and couldn't understand why I always had difficulties brushing and having tidy hair berating me for always looking unkept and uncombed, complaining when I just cut my hair short because it was easier to deal with it like this. Mom forced me to straighten my hair for a couple of years back in highscool, and I hated it, because it took too long and I actually like my curls.

At this point I've just given up and I hardly comb my hair.

Cutting them too short makes them puffy, brushing makes them puffy, combing them takes too long and hurts and it gets immediatelly ruined by the wimpiest puff of air the moment I set my feet outside, tying them makes people go "but you have SUCH beautiful curls!!! and tying it so much HURTS your hair!!!", not tying them makes people go "we NEVER see your face!!! and you should tie them or it will get in your face!!!".

Ugh, that's so frustrating. My mom used to do this to me all the time ("Why can't you just brush it?"). Honestly, sometimes with those people you need to sit them down and make them watch as you brush out all your curls...

My daughter is 4 and I hear things like this about her hair all the time. Other kids say it to her and adult care givers. I love her hair and always wanted curly hair growing up. My husband's family all told me how sorry they were that she got her father's curls as well. It's been a learning curve for me, and granted I don't make her sit for 30 minutes a day for me to put product in it. She's getting a bit more interested in her hair the older she gets though. I just hope to give her the confidence in her hair and beauty to tell someone what for for unnecessary and intrusive comments.

I have thick wavy curly hair, but it'll only curl nicely if I don't blow-dry it. When that happens it'll look good but it needs to be brushed still which ruins the curls and makes everything fuzzy until the day after when it settles down a bit. So annoying.

As a result I just let it dry, brush, and tie it up. I also have a damaged patch at the back, possibly from the metal on hair ties as a kid, no matter how short it gets cut it grows back rough with split ends.

Never got 'dress coded' for it, as we don't really have that in Ireland much but I got mocked all the time as a kid for having hair that looked like 'I got dragged backwards through a bush' because I wanted to wear it down like the other girls.

My female friend shaved her head (like, still stubble, just v short) in HS and the principal called her in and told her that she was violating dress code because she was “distracting” and actually tried to tell her she’d have to wear a wig. Best part? The principal was BALD!

I had a friend who dyed her hair wacky colours. In order to not get dress coded, she wore a wig. She got told that wasn’t good enough (never mind that it looked fantastic) and that it’s offensive to people with cancer. Smh for that bullshit excuse

My 4 year old son has beautiful hair that gets cut by mommy's stylist. I get that those rules are probably in a handbook, but if someone at school cut my son's hair.... he's only going to have a full head of hair for another 13 years before my genes kick in so he needs to look good as long as possible...

I was told that, my mother's father had a full head of thin hair. Mine is just like my dad's, his hairline looks like Montgomery Burns from The Simpson's. I'm the spitting image of my father, and my son looks just like me.

I had a coworker whose black son was threatened with an in school haircut back in the 90s. She fought it but ended up pulling him from the school. It was a school paid for by her employment too, so she ended up in a years long battle to get the employer to fund the cost for a different school.

Wow that is crazy! My son has longish hair and is often mistaken for being female by older people but if someone even mentioned cutting his hair without my permission I’d pull him out of that institution so fast heads would spin.

So did I. My Texas school once put a shelter in place down (where they lock all the doors and students have to hide under their desks) because I came to school with red streaks in my hair. They told me it was against dress code, I refused to leave and stated that “Im going to stay here and get my education”. The police were called and I was escorted out. This was my first day of 6th grade. Never went back to that school.

Mine didn't go that far but I did get written up because I dyed my hair even tho it was still a naturally occurring color. Then on a separate occasion, I painted my nails black and they banned anyone from wearing ANY dark polish colors. (Maroon and brown included because they looked black in certain lights). We also we're not allowed to wear shorts or capris. Even in the 104° weather. Tank tops were the devil. Sometimes they even had an issue with cap sleeves. You can probably guess I also got in trouble from refusing to say "under God" in the forced pledge in the morning. That was a fight I lost; I ended up having to just mouth the words but not actually say them so the teacher thought I was being compliant. I was in eighth grade at the time.

As a boy I was always really confused by rules like this. I would have grown my hair long then when they complained I would have come prepared with clippers and buzzed it to a 1 right there in the principal's office, can't get in trouble if I abide by the rules right? Though when I got home my parents would take one look and then go tell off the school. Tho I never did this exact thing my group of friends and I were known for standing on the dress and behavior code rule lines intentionally. By the time we graduated the student code was a lot thinner.

Literally 3 other girls were wearing the exact same shirt, but I had larger breasts so the principal (high school) came up to me and said, "you're being distracting. cover up. there are sweaters in the office if you don't have one."

Then I got lectured about how there is a time and a place for "certain attire" and that I was wearing mine at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and if I wanted respect I would need to dress in a way that offered me respect. When I pointed out that I was not the only one wearing that shirt, and that I deserve respect regardless of my attire or breast size, I was given detention.

But when girls started walking in, during summer, with shorts that hardly covered the bottom of their butt...no problem there.

I had a breast reduction at 22, but before that I was like a 30 J. I used to wear turtlenecks and still get called slut. When I was 16 working at Wendy's my uniform shirt was zipped down to the hollow of the neck, and my douchebag manager Ryan told me to 'zip up' because the customers could see, 'not my cleavage, but the shadow of my cleavage' (????) as I was bending over the hamburger station. When I played soccer I was a good player but kept getting pulled out and or not getting called up and one of the other players told me the coach had made a comment about 'my bouncing boobs'.

Your principal enrages me. I want to travel back in time and pretend to be your mom just so I can rip him a new one and ask him why he's sexualizing you. It's so unfair that women with larger breasts are punished like this.

There was literally a girl in my high school who changed schools because she was CONSTANTLY made fun of for having large breasts. I never even knew people made fun of her but apparently it was so bad that her mom took her out of the school. On another note my parents made me wear my older sister hand me down clothes but I had bigger boobs than her and so my dad would call me a slut. I'm just like.. you won't buy me new clothes so I'm not sure what you want me to do here.

I feel this. I had DDD breasts at like 13. I was tormented because of it by classmates and teachers. It was humiliating. I was so embarrassed at the time but as I got older I realized big tits aren't that bad and my man loves em.

Mine was a skirt but same. I got told my skirt was too short. I pointed out that as per their own regulations it wasn’t and that several other people had shorter skirts. I was told it was “too short for you.” And got in trouble.

Of course, I also got detention for being late because I was helping a friend on crutches, “snarkily” saying “it’s lip balm” about my lip balm during a bag check, for writing threatening notes to a friend that I didn’t write and there is no reason to believe I did, for laughing in the hallway.... I am convinced the vice principal just hated me because I was a pretty good kid

I gave a friend 5 dollars once. All of a sudden two school security guards and the vp were telling me to follow them. Took me to an empty room, vp goes, "I am going to go through your bag. The security guards are here in case we need to arrest you."

Apparently giving someone 5 dollars meant I was a drug dealer because a middle school teacher saw it and reported me....saying I was dealing drugs..without even approaching me. They go through my bag, find nothing, and then vp tells me, "you're lucky. next time you will get arrested." FOR WHAT

I never got accused of dealing drugs but I was apprehended because a shirt in my backpack had a weird odor to it. The school cop came, for questioning too. After my interrogation, “it smells like fake butter and various sandwich toppings” was accepted or at least i was let go, with my work shirt that I wore to my job at a grill. I’m curious what drug or substance they thought smelled like vats of country crock and cheap deli meat.

I got accused of buying and doing drugs in high school because someone WAVED at me when I walked past. Didn’t go up to them, wasn’t near them, just a simple wave hello. That person’s mom had called and said her pain meds were missing or something.

I went to the nurse later because I wanted to take a nap. The nurse and I were tight because I have type 1 diabetes so she kept all my extra snacks and supplies and I got to go hangout with her if my blood sugar was low... or sometimes high if it was making me feel particularly awful/I was peeing every 5 minutes so she’d let me just chill and nap without any questions until the end of whatever period and then wake me up.

Suddenly they’re taking my heart rate (obviously high bc I take adderall for ADD) and blood pressure and looking at my pupils and all this bullshit and the vp comes in and takes me to a different room saying I was seen interacting with a student who the believed was selling drugs and that obviously I was on them because I was tired or something like that??? Also lied and tried to tell me they’d already sent another student to be drug tested for the same reason. And apparently I looked up and to the side or something while answering a question so I was obviously lying. At that point my other class was over and I needed to go work on a project with a partner for my next class and I was super annoyed and pretty sure I ended up going off on him and just walking out saying my education was more important than their absolutely ridiculous accusations.

Wow that's awful. Something of that nature happened to my best friend, but a much less severe way. One day we were in the cafeteria, my friend was tired and she stretched her arms. Within seconds a teacher runs up to her and asks her "what did you throw?", My friend was visibly confused and asks what? The teacher replies: "sorry, did you throw something or were you just stretching?" The whole table starts laughing and my friend tells her she was just stretching.

For the love of God, when are schools going to drop the “you’re distracting the boys” bullshit? That just pisses me off. Set a dress code and enforce it because it’s a perfectly reasonable regulation, not because the boys are incapable of controlling themselves or because it’s somehow the girls’ responsibility to manage the boys’ behavior.

The only time I honestly got distracted by girls was between classes. Usually when I was hanging out with friends but the conversation would stop as we all stared like the awkward teens we were. I was too afraid of failing to not pay attention in class.

This is what I came to say! My friends and I, being dorky highschool girls, loved to wear matching outfits. I was the only one that got in trouble. I had to wear a gross gym shirt from the lost and found. We had a uniform most of the time but a few times a year we got free dress days. Obviously I was upset and confused because I was like, 12 years old, and didn't understand what was wrong with my body. Good stuff.

Similar but about makeup - I got really self conscious about my skin and started wearing a bit of concealer to school. I got called up for it, despite my classmates wearing full face makeup - eyeliner, mascara, even lipgloss/stick.

BINGO! I have had things said to me about clothing simply b/c I have very large breasts. I never show cleavage or wear anything tight. Apparently just being big breasted in itself is just too provocative for some people to handle.

I really feel that frustration. I was dress coded frequently at my first high school because the clothes I wore that followed the written rules in the student handbook were still inappropriate due to my body type. I was told that I didn't have a body that was appropriate for fitted clothes. I was a very curvy high schooler, but it became humiliating to be called in so often because I was wearing clothes that actually fit me instead of oversized tips and pants. I'm still mad about it.

Thank God for my second high school. We were fine as long as our genitals, nipples (regardless of gender), and underwear wasn't showing. And bra straps didn't count! I think they understand that it makes for a better learning environment when you don't make the kids feel like shit for their clothing choices.

Please explain to me how any of that can be provocative. Not my fault I was 21, tall and in shape. My clothes pretty much covered 70-80% of my skin. Nothing was see through or overly tight fitting either I made sure to balance things out. I never showed legs or chest.

I was pissed as they felt the need to call me in and have this conversation. Luckily I didn't hestitate to let the specific director know I felt disrespected and didn't realise my colleagues were oogling me. (Older creepy asshats.)

The next day the director apologised and shifted blame to HR as they advised him to deal with me directly.

I went to the HR director who is a woman and asked her why she felt the need to not address me instead of having one of the company directors I report talk to me about work appropriate attire?

Almost 10years later and clearly I'm still pissed 😅😅😅. I resigned a few months later, was just not a good fit in terms of office culture.

TLDR: apparently pencil skirts and high wasted pants on a 21 year old body is provocative and inappropriate work attire. 🤔

No joke. My own father sat me down and explained to me (he is in a similar field) that when I go into the office for my internships and then job that I should dress like a librarian. This way I won't be a target for discrimination and unwanted attention. It will also be safer for me. WTF. I still have not told my dad that this happened and it is so many years later lol.

I get where my dad was coming from and look what happened he was right these asshats were obviously talking about me in the office and the freaking director I reported to felt the need to address me directly regarding my attire.

My dad was just trying to shake the nativity and ignorance from my sheltered little being back then and it was for my safety.

I tried to have fewer items just didn't work as I only wanted to do one load of washing a week. Water scarce city and 4 other house mates at the time so we decided we only had 1 day each in the week for laundry. So one week I did my clothes and the other week I did bedding and towels.

I work from home now and pretty much still do the capsule wardrobe but more athleisure vibes.

At first she was pretending to not know what I was talking about. Then I told her if she doesn't sort this out I'm going to lay a formal complaint and expect an investigation. She eventually apologised and then everyone in the office had to attend soft skill development workshops. They also updated the employee code of conduct.

That conniving POS knew what she was doing was bad and still went through with it? Like it’s not that she is ignorant because she knew what she was doing was bad as evidence of lying about it. Also how is knowing soft skills the problem here? Happy you’re in a better position.

It is ridiculous just because you are in shape/fit you are targeted for wearing appropriate clothing that fits you correctly. They want you to wear baggy frumpy clothes so you look shapeless? I was targeted at one of my old jobs where I was a caregiver on night shift and could wear pants, jeans, cotton capris, etc. And I was turned in for wearing running capris even though there was no dress code saying I couldn't. I don't know who would waste their time complaining about something like that.

I was a server at a restaurant where we could make our own uniforms. I work a skirt that went to my knees and it was admittedly a little tight but only because I have a bubble butt and anything that fits me around my waist is going to be tight around my butt. My boss was a huge perv and I just dealt with it but that day I was wearing the skirt he told me I couldn’t look “that sexy” at work.

When I was working as a receptionist at a dance studio, I wore a fun 50’s style dress one day (in blue) and the owner told me it was adorable. Wore the exact same dress (in red) with a matching flower in my hair and got told I needed to change or go home because I “looked like a harlot”. I quit very shortly after that.

I wasn't allowed to wear a coat inside even though the trailor classroom's heater was broken and the windows and door were drafty, so I refused to take it off and I got in trouble for it. I wasn't the only miserably cold student. The school was afraid students would be smuggling drugs and weapons in their coats. After enough parents complained to the school, we were allowed to until the heater was fixed.

Jacket related BS also happened to me in middle school..we had uniforms, they didn’t make uniform jackets but we were allowed to wear any jacket as long as it was plain and one of the school colors.

One year, they decided they were finally gonna make uniform jackets BUT they were $50, so they still allowed us to wear our plain school colored jackets if we wanted to. Then one day, right before what was supposed to be one of the coldest days of the winter, the principal sent out an email to all parents that from now on the ONLY jackets we were allowed to wear were uniform jackets and if we wore anything else we would be out of dress code and punished accordingly. My mom said hell no we aren’t driving all the way to the store (our uniforms were sold off campus) at this hour to go spend $50 on a jacket because they decided to change the rules with no warning or leeway time. So she emailed the principal back that I will be coming to school in my white jacket until we were able to go get the uniform one. And so I did.

That morning, when the doors opened, the principal stood by and said hello to every student as they walked through the door (was a very small private school)...EXCEPT for me. Religious private schools are a trip.

Something similar happened at my (uniformed) high school, where we were allowed to wear our own coats/jackets over our uniforms. One day they decided jackets were no longer "uniform" but didn't give an option on what a uniform jacket was, so we staged a "blanket protest" and all brought in blankets to keep warm. It worked and we got to wear jackets again.

I understand they are trying to maintain order and teach ya how to follow rules etc. A verbal warning should just be sufficient.

For repeat offender's can't they just call your parents. Being suspended over silly rule violations just wastes time. If you're causing harm or interfering with your education and that of others then it is appropriate to punish accordingly but over a damn hair tie. 🤦🏽‍♀️

I was in a uniform school. During summer I sometimes went with my bike. It's an hour and 15 minute drive one way, so instead of wearing my skirt I wore a pair of pants and took my skirt in my backpack. I arrived at school and got a note for not wearing my uniform on the way to school

Private schools in Australia that have a strict uniform will 100% tell you off if you are at the shops and a teacher sees you wearing your uniform incorrectly/wearing your sports uniform.. There are very specific rules about what you can and can't wear on the way to and from school if you are wearing something associated with the school. Fun times

In my high school, if a teacher saw you outside of school with only part of the uniform on (i.e. you went to the mall in your uniform but changed your shoes) they were responsible for giving you a detention

Some private schools near me require kids to wear hats while in uniform, any time they’re in uniform. This includes after school Ie. On public transport. If they are seen outside of school hours by staff and aren’t wearing it they’re given detention!

Because my coat was longer than my skirt. Not that my skirt was too short, but because my coat shouldn’t be longer than my skirt. I showed her that the hem went past my fingertips, as per the dress code, but she said that it was because the the appearance the long coat gave it. Fuck trench coats I guess.

When I was in high school I made a shirt for an Iraq War protest that said "Drop Bush Not Bombs." My texas high school made me turn it inside out. I was piiiiiiiiiissed. Then they tried to force me to stand for the pledge of allegiance and I said no. That was an interesting year!

I stopped standing for the pledge in middle school, and it is amazing how people act like you must be evil. I also had teachers act like I was just being too lazy to stand up, until I explained that forced patriotism feels false to me, and I don't believe in god so that one line is uncomfortable for me to recite.

When I put my backpack on one day in middle school it caught the edge of my shirt and revealed an inch or so of my side for about 1 second. I was taken aside by the male teacher and told I needed to be aware that I could cause trouble and distraction if I continued acting like that. He was eyeballing me hard.

I was a fat 12 year old. If briefly seeing a tiny sliver of flabby adolescent torso gets you all hot and bothered then maybe you shouldn’t be a teacher.

Not me but a coworker at Disney. They have this weird rule at Disneyland (not sure if it also applies to Disney World) that a mans hair needs to he 1 inch or shorter and that a womans hair needs to be 1 inch or longer (if someone is trans the rules of the gender they're transitioning to apply). Coworker got dress coded and forced to wear a wig for awhile because her hair was a small fraction of an inch too short.

Edit: this was something set up by Walt Disney himself. He decided on what looked "American" and what didn't and one of them involved hair length. His other big thing was beards. A man wasnt allowed to have a bears until the early to mid 2010s due to a similar rule and if a man wants to grow a beard now he has to take some of his vacation time and come back when his beard has grown out. Since it's not technically discrimination since they do include the trans community in these rules they wont get rid of them anytime soon.

Now I’m picturing her doing something really mundane, like picking up trash or working the deep fryer, wearing a polo shirt and an over-the-top princess wig.

I’m sure they didn’t just give her one of the hundreds of character wigs they must have, but forced her to purchase one of her own. But the image of someone with a Jasmine or Ariel wig and a hair net is going to entertain me all morning.

Funny: that may be cause for discrimination in a few countries. Here in Canada, with some exceptions, employers can't impose things like facial hair requirements because under the law they're adversely discriminatory (e.g. Sikh men have to keep beards, and denying all Sikhs work at your company because they may not cut any hair on their body would qualify as indirect religious discrimination).

It's something Walt Diseny set into motion when he set up the company. Since it's not technically discrimination like his rule against female animators was back in the day the company is allowed to keep it.

This happened to me to. Bought a school shirt
shirt that came in girl sizes. Got in trouble for wearing school clothes because it showed my midriff because I'm 5'11". Should have bought the boys shirt.

I had a pair of shorts that normally fit the fingertip requirement, but I needed to use the bathroom and had pulled them up a bit too high afterwards. An office lady followed me all the way to the bathroom to wait outside for me just to see if I'd pull them up too high. Wasted 5 minutes talking to me even after I pulled them back down the 1 cm they needed to be to fit the dress code.

I got blasted by my math teacher in highschool because I stretched my arm and part of my stomach showed. I have a long torso, this was unavoidable. She called me out in the middle of class and went off on how distracting I was to the other students. A classmate (male, presumably the distracted) pointed out that I was just stretching and that my shirt totally covered my stomach. She didn't care and demanded I change into my PE clothes. Unfortunately for her the bell rang, so I did not. She didn't let me go without a warning to never wear that shirt again (I wore it a month later, she said nothing) and a threat that I would likely be written up in my next class (I wasn't).

At the time I mostly wore band t-shirts, and jeans or Dickies, but I'd still get shit from some teachers. I have a big butt and my chest is on the larger side. I feel like they just wanted to chastise me because I had the audacity to have a figure I couldn't completely hide.

In high school I wore a dress I'd worn before and no one had ever said anything but they suddenly decided it was too short and coded me. It was a dress I wore to funerals and church and stuff and it was completely ridiculous. No cleavage, quarter length sleeves, and the hem was right above my knees which they said was fine but it was my shitty hometown so nothing anyone ever says means anything.

my best friend and I both wore bandanas one day, mine maroon hers blue and we got in trouble together. If we we're in a gang we wouldn't be together. the same day a couple popular girls wore them too and they didn't get talked to. So they could do it but those of us on the periphery couldn't?

I’m mixed too and bandanas were categorically banned from our school dress code. They also would arbitrarily label things as “gang related” too. It wasn’t at school but I remember someone thought my sneakers were a gang symbol at the mall because they were the same as my sister’s and one of our friends. It’s called “flea market knockoffs because they’re cheap” or gang affiliation, either or.

Sounds like my middle school. We had very basic uniforms - gray, white, or black t-shirt with a little logo on it - and the reason I was given (by a teacher) was so they could tell the students apart from the drug dealers who would try to come on campus (that was not a thing that ever happened). Also at the time, Adidas Superstars were crazy popular and it was all the rage to wear them with colorful shoelaces. The shoelaces were eventually banned because they were "gang related". They literally wrote up a girl for wearing SpongeBob laces. Basically anything with color was likely gang related and was banned pretty quickly.

This middle school is in a little suburban town full of hyper-religious white people who all have horses and chickens and shit. What drug-running gang are they so afraid of??

I had my PE T-shirt under my uniform shirt. I was very self conscious in high school and didn’t like to change in front of other people. I usually just waited after PE to change in a private bathroom. One day as I was walking to my next class I got stopped by an old nun. She gave me a demerit for not having the correct uniform look. So stupid. It was the only demerit I got my 4 years in high school.

The military has a dress code for civilian clothing, especially overseas. The Marines who check IDs at the gate with a lot of foot traffic, had been told to crack down on the code, including for dependents. While I'm a vet, I was a spouse when this happened. If you wore pants with belt loops, you had to wear a belt. I always wore long loose blouses, untucked, so no one could see the top of my pants/jeans anyway. Still, one young Marine demanded to see if I had a belt on. Okay, then. I lifted up my top. Really high. Like to my armpits. I probably didn't have a belt on, but the sight of my lacy see through bra flustered the young man so much I was waved through.

Not me, but my sixth form implemented a 'no patterns' uniform policy on the first day without telling anyone, and my boyfriend was sent home despite wearing a full business suit because his shirt had light blue and white pin stripes.

I went to an all girls catholic high school. Casual Friday, senior year, I wore red lipstick. I got into SO MUCH TROUBLE. They called my mom and asked if she knew I was wearing it. Her response was, “I sure do. I bought it for her.” They hung up on my mom.
Principal told me this would go into my permanent record, and ANY college that called them (?) they would tell the college about “what I did.” I laughed and said go ahead.
When I graduated high school I wore the brightest red lipstick I could find. They were so pissed, haha.

I also go to an all girls catholic high school and I’m like the only one who wears makeup so I started wearing like turquoise, purple, black lipstick etc when I was a sophomore and I’m surprised I never got in trouble or anything

OMG, the cold shoulder tops are against dress code at my daughter's school, but she's allowed to have green hair (or purple or whatever). Makes no sense. Also, leggings are fine, but not tank tops. It's all very random.

Ya now I'm older and at my high school we really don't have a dress code but I remember those days when I could wear v-neck tops or wear mesh tops on top of tank tops and that was fine but bra straps weren't.

My daughter said her theater teacher told her it's because boys kept bothering girls by snapping their bra straps or pulling on their tops. So I guess we can't be bothered to correct shitty behavior by the boys and instead let's make the girls change. A+ job, school.

Wow not once have I ever had a guy pull on my bra strap or any strap for that matter. We need to correct guys behavior vs. punishing our daughters. I guy told me the other day my shorts were a little short I told him that then he shouldn't look and he wouldn't have to worry about being distracted. This is what needs to be taught to guys.

I wore a bolero sweater over a sleeveless dress to a church dance. Everything that required covering — neckline, shoulders, midriff, knees — was covered. I was sent home because the bolero “was just covering up the fact that I was dressed immodestly.”

Ma’am, clothes are only ever just covering up the fact that we’re naked.

When i first got hired at my current job, i was given a training packet and inside was a list of acceptable attire. Blue jeans, black leggings, athletic shorts that come past fingertip length, and jogging pants, and sweat pants.
So one day i come in a pair of dark gray joggers, and my manager told me i wasn’t supposed to wear them. And i cited the training packets saying both jogging pants AND sweat pants. “Thats not what that means!”

Oh I got this! Late to the party but whatever. So I went to a private all girls uniform school, and the rules specifically stated:

Shoes must be black or brown flat soled, closed toe, and rise no higher than the ankle, athletic wear is prohibited.

Conversely, for gym class, it was specifically stated that shoes must be white or black athletic shoes.

My favorite pair of shoes at the time were a regular pair of black converse. I tried to wear them for gym class, but got detention because they didnt classify as athletic wear. Okay, fine, that means they are okay for regular uniform wear! Yay me!

Nope, surprise surprise, I got detention for wearing them with my uniform because apparently they classified as athletic shoes. So why cant I wear them to gym class? Oh, now they aren't athletic shoes. I actually pulled out the school handbook and showed my principle the snippets on shoes to argue with her. She then went and changed the fucking handbook to specify that converse were banned.

Do I know you? Lol these were the exact same rules for my freshman and sophomore years at St. Joseph's Academy. My junior year, they allowed upperclassmen to wear (predominantly white) athletic shoes, and my senior year they let everyone.

I was wearing a tank top under my jean jacket and I got dress coded for it. It was literally UNDERNEATH a jacket and this teacher saw that it was a tank top and flew over to me to make sure to embarrass me in front of all my friends.

I wore a thick undershirt over my bra because the top shirt I was wearing was kinda flowy and in certain positions you might’ve been able to see my bra straps (which is against the rules). It was very thick and covered everything, it was high up so no cleavage. Keep in mind I was also flat chested so I couldn’t have had cleavage anyways.

The vice principle came up to me and TOUCHED MY UNDERSHIRT and said “your bra is showing way too much.” I explained that that’s not my bra, it’s an undershirt covering my bra that I specifically wore so I wouldn’t get in trouble. And he said “well it looks like it could be a sports bra and it is highlighting your cleavage, that’s very low cut and inappropriate.” So he wrote me up and sent me home bc I didn’t have a change of clothes.

A grown ass man. Touched the top of my undershirt. Stared at my chest to tell me about my (nonexistent!!!) cleavage and go on about how “low cut” it was (even though it was high cut!!) And sent me home the rest of the day. Those VP’s were constantly sending girls home because their butts or crotches weren’t fully covered by their shirts, “low cut shirts”, bra straps, cleavage, etc. It was pretty well known that these guys were probably pedophiles.

Shorts. They were decent shorts and adhered to the dress code but for whatever reason they decided to single me out. There were girls wearing shorter skirts than my shorts and they decided that they were going to pick on me.

my boss told me to wear a dress we were selling in our store. i wasn't wearing a bra that day, and she chastised me because my nipples showed through the dress that she made me put on even though i had warned her about it.

the dress code at that job changed daily, based on whether or not my boss liked what I was wearing.

I had been wearing the same plain black trousers for school for 6 months. Suddenly one day they decide they are no longer suitable and I nearly got put in isolation (you sit in a booth alone all day, not allowed to speak or make noise essentially).

The next day they sent a letter home to all the parents saying female students are no longer allowed to wear tight trousers as it was "distracting the male teachers" and they would measure how tight they were based on the width of the ankles.

If your teachers can't control themselves around 11-16 year old girls, then I don't think it's the trousers that are the problem.

Yep! You could get put in there for all sorts of things, isolation is a pretty common punishment in British schools. Lots of them have been under fire recently for being too quick to isolate a student rather than actually dealing with the problem after one girl attempted suicide after being put in there for like 3 months straight.

Happened last year. They were really cracking down on dress code at work. I have a slew of sleeveless work blouses, mostly chiffon or light weight fabric. My manager, who dresses like a high school emo girl, often with bra straps showing or inappropriate shirts herself, tells me it’s against dress code and told me I needed to put on a sweater. I live in Arizona, it’s a million degrees. I argued with her and then pulled up the dress code and pointed (with pictures) how my shirt actually was work appropriate.

This happened as an adult...we had casual Fridays, and a lot of my coworkers wore yoga style pants with a longish shirt for a top. I'm a petite and curvy woman with a rounder bottom. One of the female managers was going to send me home because of it...seriously? My male manager stuck up for me and said if I had to go home and change, every single woman dressed the same way would need to do the same. She eventually backed down after a few minutes of raised voices...

I wore a fake mustache to high school one day. No reason, just wanted to. I thought it would be funny to wear a skirt with it, so I did.

The most strict dean laughed at it, so I thought I was good. Nope, I get pulled into the office by another dean, because what would people think with a mustache and a skirt?? Like, she clearly wasnt happy I was wearing a fake mustache, but the major problem was the combination

My all girls catholic school expected girls to wear bloomer panties under their skirts (has to be white per the 'uniform', as if anyone was supposed to see them). This was the 90s. We are talking about schoolgirls between ages 5-17.

We had prayer meets every morning and were asked to stay back one day. The teachers proceeded to lift the girls' skirts up to check if they were wearing bloomers and not regular panties.

Caused a huge, huge uproar and parents almost trashed the head nun's office. Local newspaper covered it too. School issues an apology, nothing happened to teachers who did it, bloomer rule taken away.

A shirt in middle school. Like nothing was showing when I was standing upright (and I had a hoodie on). And tank tops and stuff are permitted by the dress code, just FYI. I was told to go to the principal’s office because the principal could see cleavage as I was bending over to pick something up

In high school, I wore a slightly off the shoulder sweater with a puffy vest zipped up over top of it. The principal caught me in the stairwell and told me that my shoulders were showing and that I needed to cover up. Literally, maybe half a centimeter of my shoulder was showing. I was wearing sweats and a vest. Obviously not trying to be sexy! Meanwhile, she was in a ridiculously short skirt and stilettos. I couldn't believe the hypocrisy.

Another time, I was at work where we had a no leggings policy. Keep in mind that we wore full-length lab coats over our outfits but we had a business casual dress code (i.e., no jeans, but dress pants and dresses are a-okay). One day I got sent home for wearing solid leggings UNDER A FANCY DRESS. The rationale was that it looked like I was wearing leggings as pants because the lab coat covered the dress. Had I been bare legged or wearing stockings, it would have been okay. Imagine!

Not exactly dress coded, but in high school we could order school spirit shirts and get the names on the back customized. Me and one of my friends got ours as "Sky High Sister #1/2" -- nicknames we had been using for years, as we were both 6'+. The school changed it to just using our last names without even telling us.

It honestly never occurred to me that there was another interpretation of that (me and my friend were both very straight laced), and I wish they would have just told us so we could have changed it to something we liked instead of just our last names.

That reminds me of when I was an elementary schooler, I wrote a story about aliens, and when the aliens spoke I wrote their dialogue like $#*%. I thought I was so clever using a string of random characters to represent alien language humans couldn't understand. Imagine my bewilderment when I got in trouble for swearing.

Not me, but I saw a girl once get dress coded for wearing a shirt that exposed her stomach. It was the last day of high school, and the only reason I remember is because not 5 feet away was a senior who was completely shirtless letting people sign his body all over.

I never paid attention to dress code before until that day. I couldn't hear what the old faculty member said when the student pointed out the shirtless dude, but given her dismissive gesture I assume it was something like "boys will be boys" or some clearly biased nonsense.

At work we have 3-day weekends...So you work or are off Fri-Sat-Sun. Our boss said during a meeting (with all my coworkers present) that we could wear casual shirts on weekends. So I wore casual shirts with the rest of my co-workers. I get pulled into her office and scolded for dressing out of uniform....wtf. I pointed out that she said we could dress like that on weekends and that the others were dressed like that... her only response was to say she didn't say that we could do that on Fridays.... meanwhile my co-workers started wearing casual shirts during the regular work week and they were never scolded.

Well, okay not super ridiculous, but in highschool I had on a pair of shorts one day that weren't even really short, but my long arms meant I was breaking the "fingertip" rule. My chem teacher stopped me in the middle of lab to tell me to change saying that it was distracting. Literally in my class of science nerds, everyone was focusing on their labs, especially cuz they ran kinda long sometimes. So idk who it was distracting unless she was some kinda pedophile, but okay, whatever. Doesn't help either that all the school's cheerleading uniforms were super short and didn't fit the dress code at all

My high school had a uniform that included knee socks or tights for girls and striped ties for boys. One year they had a “holiday sock and tie day” right before Christmas. I wore both Christmas socks AND a Christmas tie. I got dress coded for the tie because “ties are not part of the women’s uniform”. (Boys got to wear both holiday socks and ties fwiw.)

i’m not sure how common it is for this to happen so i don’t know if it’s ridiculous, but when i turned 18 i got a tattoo on my shoulder. obviously i wanted to show it off when i went to school so i wore a shirt that would fall a little lower on my shoulder. when i went to the nurse for a bandaid because i cut my finger, she forced me to put on this giant bandage that covered my whole tattoo. said it wasn’t appropriate. it’s a tattoo of flowers.

A belt in middle school. They had just implemented a dress code and I forgot a belt one day. It was after lunch and the day was almost over, but one of my teachers made me go to the office and call my mom to bring me one. She obviously said no way that's stupid, but my teacher didn't like that answer and I got sent back. The office lady gave me a note saying I didn't need one, but the teacher didn't accept that and I got in school suspension.

Something nearly identical happened to me. I wasn’t wearing a belt, but I did have a sweater on that covered my belt loops. I was reaching for something and my sweater came up a bit, showing that I wasn’t wearing a belt. My teacher sent me to the principal’s office and I had in school suspension for the entire eight hour day. I’m still mad about it.

My shoes in a high school exam- they were dark purple Doc Martens and it was an English Lit exam.

I had no classes that day, showed for my exam in the required school uniform, complete with blazer. I never even thought about what shoes I was wearing. The teacher made a fuss about them being distracting for other students - no one noticed until she made a fuss, threatening to kick me out the exam!

I worked at H&M in college and bought a skirt from there that was mid-thigh length. I was 5’8” and my co-worker, who wore the same skirt to work frequently, was 5’2”. I was dress coded every single time for wearing the skirt because “skirts above the knee weren’t allowed.” My co-worker’s skirt also hit the same area of her leg, but because her legs were shorter, she never got in trouble for it. I was always so mad and therefore kept wearing the skirt out of spite.

In my middle school, they didn’t have the “to your fingertips” rule with the shorts and skirts. Instead the “yard-duties” would go up to a girl, ask them to bend over at the knees, and stare at their 12 year old asses to see if the length was “acceptable.” I still have no idea how on god’s green earth they were allowed to do that.

In middle school, I was told not to wear my tinker bell shirt because it had “old English font,” which was against the rules due to its gang affiliation. It literally just said Tinker Bell on a pink shirt from Disney...

So last year I wore a lot of 1800’s inspired clothes, with a random thrift store piece thrown in once in a blue moon. There’s a rule at my high school stating that you can’t wear shirts that show cleavage if you bend over. I got dresscoded for a v-neck blouse and an 1850’s style skirt and jacket. Just...imagine dress coding these ladies for immodesty.

In 6th grade my mom got me some new clothes for birthday, including a pink cami that had a tiny sliver of lace at the top. Of course we couldn’t wear spaghetti straps at school, so I wore a long sleeve v-neck shirt over the tank top. For clarification, I had no boobs in 6th grade (was still wearing training bras) and my tank top came up to my armpits. Thus, even if I had some boobage, there would have been zero cleavage.

The day I wore it to school, I got called into the assistant principals office during lunch. I sat down with her and she said that I needed to change my shirt because it was inappropriate. When I asked why it was inappropriate, she said, verbatim, “Because this is school, not Victoria’s Secret”.

My dad does t-shirt design and printing and used to do tons of shirts for all of my schools. In 7th or 8th grade, I delivered a box of shirts to the front office one morning and was held there by a teacher I didn’t know while he radioed an assistant principal about what to do about my “inappropriate t-shirt” with a “scary skeleton” on it. It was a baggy Nightmare Before Christmas shirt with a very cartoony, happy Jack Skellington. They made me turn it inside-out. Texas. 🙃

My then boyfriend went to our rival school. I wore his letterman to school because I had no other thick coat and it was cold af outside. I was told to take off the jacket and either leave it in my locker or in the principal’s office. I started tearing up bc I had to walk outside to get to my next class. Ran as fast as I could to my next class only to be greeted by a friend wearing another (but non-rival) school’s letterman. I was pissed.

My middle school had really strict clothing rules that even didn’t let us wear our hair down and we could only wear grey, white and black socks with our school uniform. And only black shoes were allowed. Motherfuckers made me pen the white nike logo black on my black sneakers or I had to walk around in my socks the whole day.

In high school I wore a dark navy pullover sweater one day to class that I bought at a uniform store. Got dress coded because it looked black and was therefore against the school uniform. Argued that it was dark navy and from the fucking uniform store they sent us to buy things from. The one time I actually wore a black sweater to class I didn’t get dress coded. Administrators on a power trip really suck the fun out of life.

Wearing a colored longsleeve shirt under my school shirt. Although there had been many people who’ve done it before. Their reason? Gang colors, they sure as hell know none of these preppy kids are gonna represent a gang. It wasn’t even a gang color when I looked it up later.

Shorts. I was working a student job in a college. I was not publicly visible and sat in a back corner. Occasionally I had to visit closed teacher offices to perform IT stuff. I rarely interacted with teachers, but ran into them occasionally. Apparently one of them found my shorts and ponytail offensive and mentioned it to my boss. A student wearing shorts and a ponytail during the summer. How dare I?! I worked there two years. There was never any established dress code and I didn't wear anything unusual. My boss cornered me in the elevator and went off at me about it. She had some deep mental issues and might've taken the comment the wrong way. It was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I wasn't allowed to wear shorts to school/work anymore or pants that went above the knee. She got upset when I decided to quit and couldn't understand why.

One time in 6th grade I was wearing short shorts (which had to be longer than your fingertips with your hands down at your side) WITH BLACK LEGGINGS UNDERNEATH. Absolutely none of my skin was visible, and I got pulled out of class because my shorts were too short...

One of my coworkers and I often shopped the clearance racks together and wound up both buying the same navy and beige striped skirt. She wore it Monday, no problem. I wore mine a few days later and got written up for “skirt too short”. Pointed out coworker had the same one and had worn it without issue. Well, boss said, it looked better on her. She’s got the build to carry it off and you don’t. I’m tall and not very curvy, coworker was what I’d now say is “busty petite”.

Work for dresses that were “too short” but only on the two of us who were overweight. I wear black opaque tights, swapped for leggings and the dresses were suddenly okay, even though both gave the same coverage. I still get frustrated about that double standard. Luckily I no longer work there.

It was a private elementary school in my country, boys was supposed to wear dark color socks and girls was supposed to wear white socks, on day all my dark color socks were getting wash so I went to school with white socks, got dress coded and they didn’t let me attend class, I had to stand in the hallway the whole day until my parents brought me a another pair of socks.

My school was (and, like the entire country, probably still is) extremely lax on dress codes, so pretty much everything within reason was allowed (miniskirts, spaghetti straps, bras showing, punk outfits, whatever), the only thing that was singled out was that you had to change your shoes when you entered school (reasoning: bad weather most of the year, dirt and snow indoors). After the first year of high school it became apparent that this law was in fact dead and only used selectively on very obvious muddy shoes on first year students, apart from that, it was shoe bonanza, you could wear doc martens, stiletto heels anything, if a teacher stopped you you'd say "but I changed them" and it was ok. However the unchanged shoe rule was still a useful teacher weapon implemented for arbitrary reasons to embarrass students with.

One day we had Reagan's son come in to give a pep talk. This is a conservative country, but my school was artsy and liberal, so during the QA session I basically told Reagan's son that he was a homophobe and asked him how does he reconcile his apparent desire for equality with his opposition to gay marriage (we don't have gay marriage here til today, so it was a bit risque, I'll admit). I left the room quite fast after the event was done, but the principal descended on my class and demanded they give up "the girl with the unchanged shoes". The local paper reported the visit with the comment "students asked vital and important questions, such as on the topic of gay marriage". So that's my activism story I guess lol.

I had just had major ear surgery and had a huge aggressive scar pretty much circling my ear and was very self conscious and upset about it. So my mum took me to the hairdressers and told me to pick a colour for my fringe and paid for it all.

My mum got called into the school the next day and told to undye my hair. My mum's response was "well when you stop the morons from bullying her here then I will take away the one thing getting her to come to school at the minute because she has a bit of confidence"

I wore high waisted fancy shorts for a debate in middle school (and we were allowed to wear shorts) and got dress coded immediately because the teacher thought it was a skirt and I was spreading my legs showing her it wasn’t but I still got sent to get a change of clothes.

I went to a uniformed school and during my second year our uniform went from polos and smart trousers to shirts, blazers and, smart polishable black shoes. That sounds appropriate until they implemented a wooly sleeveless vest that was beyond hot and it was designed for mens bodies so women looked like a blob. We all grumbled about this as insecure teen girls will but the real trouble started when summer came and the boys were allowed to take their vests off yet the girls weren't. We were sweating and being sent home for feeling poorly and eventually a few teachers loosened up and let us take it off as long as we didn't tell the senior members. I remember burning mine when i left

When I was pregnant, in my first trimester, I had really bad morning sickness because I was working around food and behind the counter. I was able to easily fix this with a thin paper medical mask that covered my nose and mouth. I couldn't smell the food ad I wasn't getting sick. It didn't have any designs on it, it was plain white. I was coded for it because it wasn't company standards. The alternative was throwing up literally every 30 mins sooooooo idk

Once as a volunteer at a library teaching GED classes I was told my shorts were inappropriate. Admittedly they were short shorts but it was also like.. I’m dressed modestly (they weren’t tight or showing any booty) and professionally. These people are here by choice to get their GED. If they’re distracted by my teenage legs, they’ve got other problems.

I got detention because I wore a shirt that wasn't button down. Same thing, but the collar wasn't a buttoned-down-type. I was wearing it properly. The collar buttons were literally the only thing that was different from an acceptable shirt to one that wasn't.

While in college studying to be a nurse, we had very strict clothing decorum: White uniform, with white shoes and socks, and your underwear had to also be white, as to not be seen through the uniform.

So in one of our internships, a black girl got called out by our teacher because she could her underwear through her pants. Thing is, she was wearing white underwear, but it was contrasting with her dark skin. The teacher was mortified when the girl showed her that she was adhering to the decorum, and it was promptly changed.

I once got dress-coded for wearing school pants that exposed my ankles. I’m 5’7 and the pants were made for somebody like two inches shorter than me. That was also the day I got demerits for having a “mean girl haircut” (it was a shaved sides pixie with the top long)

I was wearing a long sleeve cardigan over a tank top. Had my book bag on one shoulder and it slipped, revealing the tank top strap for a fraction of a second. Vice principal made me wear a t-shirt over the cardigan so I wouldn't "distract the boys".

I went to a protestant based private school.
Spring and summer the uniform was a white polo, and black pleated skirt. Autumn and winter the shirt was a longsleeved oxford. Socks could be black or white, as long as they where mono colored. The jacket was only worn for official functions. Pantyhose had to be appropriate for your skin toon, sheer or nude for light skin tone, and the like. Shoes had to be black and no heels, otherwise they didn't care about brand or style.
Hair ties could be black, white, grey.
Girls that developed thier bust earlier or had a fuller cup, where encouraged to wear the otherwise optional sweater vest.

I got dress coded at my work last year. We could really wear what we wanted, how we wanted so long as it included the shirt with our restaurant logo on it.

I was wearing a red flannel over a tank top and some cut off jeans because I was there to buy a computer from my boss. I wasn't working. The guy I was buying from still took pics of me while at the ATM without my knowledge and from then on I was treated like I never wore my uniform. I was denied promotion and raises even though I was expected to still do the job I wasn't being promoted to do and whenever I went to talk about being officially promoted I was told that they can't promote someone who doesn't wear her uniform.

My school was cracking down on tank tops on young girls for like a month straight. It was summer and we had no a/c HOWEVER there was a boy who wore a shirt with a half naked woman, complete with boob job, posing seductively. He wore this shirt several times, but was never punished for it.
So he could wear a woman on his shirt, posed sexually, nearly naked and no staff member said shit. But we couldn't wear a modest tank top because of that bullshit 3 finger rule.

In 8th grade I was sitting at my desk and bent over to get something out of my bag. My teacher came over and quietly informed me that when I lean over like that, "ALL is revealed, and NOTHING is concealed." Like, ok lady, maybe don't look down my shirt? It wasn't even a deep scoop-neck. She made me put on a jacket and zip it up.

I'm 5'11" (5'10" at the time) and I had shorts two and a half inches above my knee instead of two inches one day in high school. My vice principal held a ruler up to my knee cap and said it would distract the boys in my class. I had to miss 6 college classes and sit in in-school suspension all day. Then I left and went home and I got out of school suspension for 3 days because I left school property.

A lot of the adminstration really didn't like me because I went off on them but still graduated valedictorian. Now I'm in college and everyone wears whatever the hell we want.

High school, mid winter in Canada. All the rules stated that boots worn had to be dark brown, navy, or black. Ok fine. I get a pair for Christmas that are dark brown and suede. I got a violation bc of the material of the boots which wasn't specified in the rulebook. The next semester the rule against suede boots was in bold print.

That definitely would have gotten you dresscoded at my high school. The one girl who was brave enough to go full butch spent nearly the entirety of senior year in the principle's office or suspended and wasn't able to graduate as a result.

Public. It was weird too because the band director was an out lesbian who wasn't the butchest woman I've ever seen, but she was definitely wearing clothes bought in the men's section most of the time. The principle hated her though and kept trying to find ways around her union protection to fire her. I suspect him coming down hard on the one other out lesbian in the entire building was partially him compensating for the fact that he couldn't fire her. The other gender-nonconforming kids (and one guy who wore a kilt that the principle was sure was a skirt) got dress coded pretty frequently too, but nobody got it quite as bad as the super butch girl.

my mom is a 7th grade teacher. the women at her school aren’t allowed to wear leggings. and when they wear slacks they still have to wear a top long enough to cover their butt. but the male teachers...

I was a Cantor at a RC church, my first regular singing gig at 19. I had been there a few years when another cantor, who had been there over 15 years along with his wife, had a meeting with one of the priests about my attire.

I typically wore a long dress, long pants with a dressy shirt or sweater as we didn't have to wear robes to Cantor.

I was called into a meeting the next week and was told about whatshisface's concerns. I snapped back, "He didn't have a problem when his wife wore a tightly fitted lace dress at our Christmas concert."

I'm 50 and I've never even heard the term dress coded before. I was in school during the golden age of anything goes. But I was arriving at work one day at a bank when a manager at the front door had a fit because we were expecting corporate office visitors and I was wearing a denim jacket over my very professional outfit. I explained the jacket was going into the coat closet as soon as she moved aside so I could get through the damn door.

I cosplay. The amount of times I was called names for wearing something just because it fit my body correctly (made it myself so it actually fit) just because I have large twins on my chest is insane. I'm 75% covered. I'm not wearing a plunging neckline. What is wrong with people?!

Wearing “too tight” of khaki pants at my job at a pet store. We were told we could wear boot cut or flare pants as long as they were khaki fabric(not jeggings). I was wearing the same pants I always had and was told they were too tight. I’m petite and have muscular legs and thighs so even though my pants were boot cut they looked too “skinny” on me.

I even went to Walmart to try on other pants to find a pair that worked better but the ones I bought still weren’t good enough. I told my boss that I could either wear the pants I was wearing or wear pants that were too big and have my ass hanging out, she could choose. That if the regional manager had a problem he could bring it up to me personally. She left me alone about it after that.

I should point out that my job involved me bending and climbing up ladders, between pallets etc all day so having too big of pants wouldn’t have been just uncomfortable but dangerous.

At school - got coded because my regulation school skirt was too long. It fell to just under my knees, not just above them. It’s not my fault I’m short!
I was also coded for unnatural hair colour (there was a hint of red to it which hadn’t washed out yet from the start of my summer holiday, so it was slightly chestnut toned) however took my argument to the principle and argued that if I was being punished, the entire rugby team needed to be punished because they’d tried to bleach their hair and made it go orange and yet that was ok.

Retail - coded for looking too smart (uniform was anything we wanted as long as it was black or white, no leather, no fur, no logos and close toed flat shoes). Apparently I looked like the manager and it would be confusing for the customers. I had black jeans on and a white shirt.

Spa - coded for not having my nails painted, for not wearing enough makeup, for my hair being too short (it was exactly the same length as when they hired me) and finally for my plain black shoes being TOO SHINY. I lasted three months.

I got called in for wearing a kerchief around my hair like a babushka. Apparently kerchiefs were banned because they could be affiliated with gangs. Mind you, I went to a high school in a semi-rural setting where the student population was 99% white (of which I was the 1% nonwhite) and if anything, had a problem with teen pregnancy, underage drinking, and cocaine. Not gangs. And my kerchief was leopard print, not even the classic colors.

For what it’s worth, the Vice Principal clearly didn’t want to call me in and felt silly doing so, but he said he couldn’t make any exceptions. Oh brother.

my (standard issue) uniform being too short above the knee (I was 12/13 yo and already 175cm tall, I was wearing the size that fit my waist/hips at the time... even if I sized up, the too big skirt wouldn't have met the length requirements... I was just a giant kid).

Not me, but at a relative's wedding in a small town catholic church, the priest came into the pews to tell an out of town guest from a big city (I don't think she was foreign but she could have been) that she needed to cover her shoulders out of respect because she was in a church (it was august and probably 25-30 degrees c, no aircon obviously). It definitely struck me, because I remember thinking her outfit looked so sophisticated when she walked in, it was a sleeveless shift dress, not entirely inappropriate given the weather.

If you had straps showing (from bras or undershirts, it didn't matter) the administrators would pull your shirt back over to hide them. You'd be sitting in the cafeteria at lunch and all of a sudden a man would come up and adjust your shirt for you. Unbelievable.

Once my sister was wearing jeans with rips in them and they forced her to put paper in her jeans to cover the holes. Paper. In her jeans. Usually ripped jeans weren't allowed if the holes were above the knee, but her pants were perfectly fine. She had to stuff paper in her pants and cover her knees for the entire day at school.

I looked at her, and said that was fat shaming. I'm a voluptuous size 16, and said that half the building wears leggings. Also I sarcastically said I apologize for being overweight, and I would try to wear 'less thin pants.' Which is completely subjective. Fuck that. Other people in the building wear leggings, sweatshirts, jeans, ugly ass old clothes from their 80s and 90s closets, scrubs, and track pants, as well as career bitch pantsuits. I looked at dress code, 'business casual' and only mentions being clean, no gym clothes, etc. Not fair that scrawny people can wear things with chest skin showing, but it's sexualized if God forbid someone can tell I have breasts or an ass. Women need to bring each other up, not take them down.

I was dress coded for a skirt being too short. Mind you I had solid tights under and the skirt hit right above my knees. The assistant principal got me for it and told me to put on p.e. shorts instead so I made them shorter than my skirt.

Also they wanted me to do detention to get my skirt back. I told my mom and she had it out with the principal and pointed out multiple girls right in front of him who were wearing less clothing than me. I got my skirt back and he never bugged me again.

The only time I ever got dress coded, I wore a cap sleeve shirt with a tank top underneath. In our school, your shirts had to cover your shoulders, so my shirt was compliant to our dress code. I went to the office to get something and the Vice Principal called me out immediately, saying they could see my armpits and that it was “too sexual” and “inappropriate.” I had to change into my ratty old gym shirt and, once I got back to class, I saw a classmate wearing a sleeveless blouse that was far more revealing than my top. To this day I’m still confused as to why my literal armpits got sexualized in middle school!

Had a tunic like shirt in middle school. A guy was getting written up for his pants sagging at the same moment I was leaning and reaching across a table. My shirt had ridden up to where the small of my back was exposed a little bit, supposedly my underwear were visible. He pointed at me and said “but she’s out of dress code toooooooooo.” Super petulant sounding. She wrote the both of us up “to not be sexist.” (?!??)

The fingertips rule! I have long legs and arms and that combo made that rule a living hell for me until a counselor came to my defense saying teachers cannot punish me for my bone structure. Basically my arms go about 2/3 of the way down my legs and the skirts and shorts that were made in my size at the time typically came down to about 1/2 my thigh. For reference that would be Bermuda shorts or skirts that on my friends when I let them borrow the skirts would go down to their knee because they didn't have the extra inch or so I have in my femurs.

My PE skirt. My school has a uniform that everyone has to buy, so before I started the school I went to the store that the school recommended and got the uniform and the PE kit uniform. So part of the pe kit had a skirt that goes over shorts, it was a pretty expensive skirt too but we thought it was something that was required. So first day of PE at this school and only me and one other girl had the skirts, we were immediately told we can't wear them and to take them off because 'you look ridiculous'. My mum was really pissed that I was 'refusing' to wear this skirt after she spent so much on it (she can tell because it never got dirty atall unlike the rest of my kit)

Nothing major, but once in 9th grade I was walking to class and had an itch on my belly right at the waistband of my pants, so I stuck my hand under my shirt to scratch it. As I was passing a classroom some teacher stepped in front of me and said "You need to pull down your shirt or you're going to the office." I just looked at her like, what the fuck are you even speaking to me for? Fucking relax.

Clear nail strengthener. School dress code said no nail polish, even clear, my sixth grade science teacher was known for inspecting the girls nails at random and would write you up if it was more than your first infraction. My nails have been peeling since the day I was born, there’s no way I was going without that stuff

Recall a couple years back when lace/sheer sleeves were all the rage? When I was in high school, I ended up getting dress coded because a tiny glimpse of my shoulder (and bra strap) could be seen through the lace. It was such a minuscule thing and the lady who called me out for it acted like I was such an awful person haha

Recall a couple years back when lace/sheer sleeves were all the rage? I ended up getting dress coded because a tiny glimpse of my shoulder (and bra strap) could be seen through the lace. It was such a minuscule thing and the lady who called me out for it acted like I was such an awful person haha

I don't think I've ever been dress coded. I have been told that my underwear was visible through my white pants, so I don't count that. However, as a young female teacher, I have been tasked many times with telling the little girls to cover up. I feel really bad for the tall, skinny girls who are wearing shorts. It's impossible for them to not look like they're showing a lot of skin. But they're just trying to be comfortable

The whole skirt to fingertips rule. At work. As an adult. I have very long (like disproportionate) arms. My much taller coworker with proportionally shorter arms used to wear short skirts all the time and no one said a thing. Fuck you, Joyce.

I was 15, completing a GCSE exam. I was wearing full school uniform with my buttons done up with just one left open (we didn’t have ties) I’d taken off my jumper as it was summer and warm in the school hall. I was also sat at the front with my back to EVERYONE in the hall taking the exam. At the end of the exam the deputy headteacher (female) took me aside and said ‘for tomorrow’s exam can you wear a jumper because your breasts are distracting the boys from their exams...’ WHAT?! I was at the FRONT, FULLY covered and it was really hot in there!! So I had to sweat my arse off during the exam in fear of distracting the boys... and for a girl of 15 this was pretty fucking embarrassing.

My school had an uniform, and we were only allowed to use accesories that matched said uniform's colours. My scarf got taken away in the middle of winter because it was black rather than dark blue. I got sick shortly afterwards.

Wearing sneakers, which are allowed by company dress code, because the lace were black with silvery threads instead of just black. unless you are actively looking at my shoes you wouldn't even notice the silvery threads.

I was dress coded for my hair. I was working at a hotel at the front desk. When I was hired for the job, I had flat ironed my hair. I showed up for work one day rocking my natural hair (curly fro) and my boss told me I could not wear my hair like that to work. I was like, "Dude. This is my hair." He sent me home, I never went back.

In high school I got dress coded for wearing a camisole under a low cut top. The assistant principal claimed the camisole was my bra (it clearly wasn't) and therefore was out of dress code. I wore the camisole so my top wouldn't show my cleavage!!!

Wore hoop earrings. I asked why I needed to take them off and the vice principal said a boy could be walking around with a pencil and could trip and fall and the pencil could go through the hoop, pull it down and rip my ear lobe.

Having outside back pockets on my dress pants. I used to work at Heritage Bank and they literally found every reason to harass me. And I've always been told at every other job I've had that I was one of their hardest most loyal workers.. just goes to show you not everyone will appreciate you I guess.

I was in high school and it was lunch time. My friend was eating pistachios and she offered me one. I had never had one before so I wanted to try one. Well my mouth started swelling up and I was starting to have trouble breathing. I knew already that I was allergic to cashews but I did not know that pistachios were in the same family. Anyways, I was going into anaflatic shock.

I ran to the office and explained to them what was happening. My throat was starting to close up. The lady working in the office called the paramedics. While I sat there waiting, I was chugging water to try to keep my throat from closing. I am struggling for air at this point.

The lady "helping" me thought it was a good time to tell me that my shirt was too low cut and that I needed to try and pull it up.

I just looked at her stunned.

I didn't say anything but i wanted to say are you fucking serious. I'm dying here. I don't give a shit about how low cut my top is.

In high school, during colder days, I would wear leggings under ripped jeans. They told me that was unacceptable and told me to go to the office. 😑 I argued back bc I did not agree. So I said I would go after I used the bathroom, but I just went back to class.

Each year we were allowed to review the school hand book and make cases for why we think certain policies should be changed, obviously the school/ principal have veto power for certain things that are literally beyond are control.

However dress was never topic they held over our heads, even if a teacher said that certain dress should be deemed inappropriate we were allowed to challenge their view and ask why/ present our case.

There was an extremely tall girl in our school. She had long legs and deemed certain things unfair because the “finger tip rule” or even measurement of inseam may be unfair to her because of the type of jeans that were being presented to young woman in the first place, AND she was taller than her average 16yr old girl. We’re in Texas and it would have been crazy to tell her she couldn’t wear shorts.

We were able to present a case and demolished the notion that our dress would be distracting to learning and those distracted shouldn’t be able
To police because they can’t control themselves.

I don’t know if this post applies to teachers, but I got reprimanded for wearing leggings under my dress. The dress went down to my knees, but I still wore leggings because I know how middle school boys are. Apparently wearing a dress without leggings is more appropriate than wearing a dress with leggings.

One time in high school during my senior year I got told my shirt was a violation because you could see the Aries tattoo I have on the back of my neck/back, between my shoulder blades. I laughed and walked out of the office. Nothing happened, probably because we had 2 days left of senior year lol.

A knit beret. Apparently knit beanies weren't allowed, but I was wearing a loosely knit beret like hat and I didn't think it mattered because it had holes big enough to show my hair.
A student aid lady told me it wasn't allowed, but she sounded kind of hesitant. Like she probably thought it was OK but apparently she needed to be 100% strict with the rules. Idk why she didn't just allow it. But no cute beret for me. Weird rule...

Oh okay I have a good one lol back in the olden days of the late 90s/early 2000s, there was a short lived trend of upper arm bracelets. Most of them were snake like and just looked kind of funky and tribal. I wore one to school one day, my sister had given it to me as a gift for my birthday. I was brought to the vice principal's office and told I had to take it off and leave it with them until the end of the day. They didnt tell me why it was against code, they just took it. Later on that day my mom got a call from the school and they told her I couldnt wear it to school because it was a "Representation of SLAVERY" and therefore unacceptable. I was only in the 7th grade so I had no idea wtf they even meant by that so my mom had to explain it to me and we just cracked up laughing. It was the most petty sh*t I've ever experienced and I still laugh about it lol 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

At my high school we used to have to wear a god awful blazer to and from school - and outside of school at all times in out winter uniform to be 'presentable,' even if the weather was hot. In the mornings and afternoons sometimes, they would have teachers waiting at the closest train station to catch students out for not wearing their blazers, literally like uniform police.

My elementary school had uniforms, and on Wednesday’s we could wear red for drug awareness day. I wore red pants once, and was sent to the office and made to change into loaner khakis. They were so scratchy. Apparently we were only allowed to wear red shirts

I have long legs and arms with a shorter torso so lots of skirts looked short on me that looked fine on other people. My arms go almost down to me knees and skirts/shorts had to be "fingertip or longer." It was such a dumb rule because I would wear shorts hitting mid thigh and it looked short and "above fingertips" while others word shorts to mid thigh and it looked more in line with dress code on them. I got finger tip checked so much and almost got written up once.

Cosmetology school, they were coding at the door before we clocked in. I wasn’t wearing lipstick, so I had to step out of line, apply lipstick and then get back in line. I was wearing a full face of makeup, just no lipstick.

Manager pulled me aside and told me that the clothes I were wearing were “too short, too tight, and too inappropriate for work.” The same, exact clothes that were sold in the clothing store that I worked in. I was further instructed to not buy or wear my size clothing anymore and that she would be checking the size tags before every shift. If I wasn’t wearing at least an extra size larger, my choices were to go home for the day and she’d mark me down as a no-show and I’d risk losing my job, or I could buy the clothes that she would approve of right then and there.

I was a size 8, she wanted me to wear not a size 8, and she had to approve the style and size of the clothes—that we sold in the store, to other customers—before I could purchase and wear them TO WORK IN THE SAME EXACT STORE. I was in my early 20s and had almost no common sense but I knew my fashion (and I asked my mom how I looked and believe me she wouldn’t let me out of he house if there had been a wardrobe/size issue). I think I lasted there another month before I quit. She was awful.

Way back I was working as a cashier at a supermarket. Our dress code was dark pants or khaki, white collar shirts, black bow ties, green vests. Blah. Those shirts had to be tucked into your pants.

I had an operation where the doctor went through my belly button. I was all bandaged up and couldn’t wear pants that buttoned or zipped as I was swollen and in pain.

Maternity pants to the rescue. But I didn’t want to tuck in my shirt and have the rumor mill think I was pregnant. Manager flipped out and made me shut down my lane and go to the office where she wrote me up. I explained to her what happened and showed her the bandage. Not good enough- she sent me home without pay and said not to come back till I was able to wear the proper clothing.

I wore a tank top that was within school policy on a 100 degree day. The rules were no spaghetti straps or cleavage, it was thick straps and I was an A cup so there couldn't be cleavage if I tried. My orchestra teacher was overly religious and had a different rule in her classroom that your collar couldn't be lower than 4 closed fingers below your collarbone. Her room was not well air conditioned, and she made me wear a sweatshirt over my tank top in that hot as hell room.

This is where I say, I have a dress that's a cold-shoulder; it's also the dress with which I have the most ridiculous memory.
I was literally sitting at a lunch table with one period left in the day when one of the security ladies drives by, stops, and pulls me aside telling me that my dress is unacceptable and I need to either cover up with a jacket (it was the end of the school year in Arizona) or go dress out. Now okay, I understand, I was probably in the wrong for wearing a non-dresscode dress, but what irks me is that not two tables away there was a bunch of girls in shorts definitely shorter than they should be and tube tops or sleeveless shirts. Yet I was singled out. Cool 😂

I used to have a skirt with like palm leaves on it in a bunch of shades of green and brown and I got asked to not wear it again because it "looked too much like illicit drugs" they didn't make me change but ... You're really gonna ask me to not wear this again when every other student here has some bullshit with actual pot leaves on it?? Like kids walked around in full patterned sweaters and "rasta colours" but I was asked to not wear the skirt again and I think my friend was asked to not wear a shirt that said "think legal" with a website under it that was just like www. marijuanalegalizationfacts .net or something and he was told it was "suggestive of illicit drugs."

All the actual "marijuana culture" clothes were fine but not a shirt advocating for fact based decisions. IIRC the argument he made was "marijuana is illicit drugs? This is Canada, I don't think you know what you're talking about."

In elementary school I had one of those long-sleeve shirts with thumb holes.. apparently that was inappropriate so my dad had to leave work and bring me a different shirt. Still don’t know what was wrong with the thumb holes to this day.

For game days my field hockey team was told to wear our uniforms to school which consisted of a kilt with shorts under and a jersey. I am taller than average (but nothing crazy) so my kilt hit a couple inches above my knees. I and all the other tall girls were dress coded for wearing a school issued kilt that they told us we had to wear to school to play in the game (it was considered unteamlike to not dress the same on game day). The kilts were one size so it’s not like we could get a longer one. After several of us trying to point this out and recurring issues we finally got them to let us wear warm up pants with our jerseys in game day.

While I was in Jr high the school switched to having a uniform. And since it was the first year the school did this they would me announcements over new rules after school had already started. Once during the winter they announced that scarfs are not allowed, I was in the hall about to enter my first class with a scarf on because we weren't allowed jackets and I had to walk outside for my next class. We locked eyes I slowly took it off my neck and just wrapped it around my waist. My teacher just silently nodded.

Reading these ridiculous dress codes, I'm so happy we don't have anything like this at school or work. I like to dress biz casual or just 'dressy' and some people come to work in slippers and PJs. What does it matter if the customer can't see you?

I’m 6th grade I wore leggings under some shorts and got coded because my shorts weren’t long enough. Like okay wtf it’s not like skin is showing and I doubt I’m distracting a bunch of 11 year old boys.

Having a zipper a little up the ankle side of my work pants? I only got them because it they were on sale for a crazy price at old navy i didnt care for the zippers. But my manager (a woman) told me not to wear them again like they were inappropriate? But all the women wearing leggings are fine?

A manager who hated my guts and made my life seriously miserable. She harassed me about literally everything all the time every day. I woke up every morning feeling horrible anxious dread, but I needed the money and the health benefits.

Once when she actually approved the length of a skirt I was wearing, I went home and took out every dress and skirt that was shorter. The next day she jumped on me for my skirt length and I told her what I had done. We seriously had this conversation:

I did do it. (Culled my wardrobe to only include the length she approved of.)
No, you didn't.
Yes, I did.
No, you didn't.
Yes, I did.
No, you didn't.
Yes, I did.

I just stopped wearing skirts and dresses after that.

But! One day, I went to work wearing the exact same outfit a coworker sometimes wore. I felt confident that I would not be harassed over the dress code that day. However, when she saw me, she lost her shit. When I pointed out I was wearing the exact outfit Coworker wore sometimes (and thankfully Coworker actually backed me up), she turned around and left the room. (The offensive thing about my outfit? A scarf draped over my shoulders.)

A friend of mine in high school got in trouble for wearing a shirt that said, “Nothing to wear,” as in she couldn’t decide what to wear in her closet. But our assistant principal clearly had his head in the gutter and cited her.

When I was in middle school shirts with sayings on them were in. One day I went to gym class wearing a t shirt saying “ I find your lack of bacon offensive” (this was during the height of bacon mania). My gym teacher pulled me aside to tell me my shirt was inappropriate. When I asked why she told me that I knew why. Me being the little shit (and having dealt with being unfairly dress coded since 4th grade) I sent myself to the principals office to discuss my shirt. I also brought the shirt to every class with me for the rest of the day asking if my other teachers found it inappropriate, none of them did. My parents ended up complaining to the school and my teacher was forced to explain why it was inappropriate, she claimed bacon was slang for butts and breast and that I was making fun of less developed classmates.

I have narrow shoulders, and they were even narrower as a teenager, so nothing would stay on. I also had a penchant for wearing oversize hoodies. Once my bra strap slipped off (this happened all the time, and I'd usually try and fix it stat), and one shoulder of my hoodie slipped off too, so a tiny bit of bra strap was visible. Before I was able to fix it, my vice-principal told me off because my "underwear was showing".

I used to work in a small, local real estate office as an “office manager”. It was a home-based office and I was the only employee besides my boss, the realtor/broker. I had only been working there a few weeks when the weather started to get really hot. My boss never gave me a real dress code to abide by, but since she wore mini dresses looking like she just came from a Miami Beach night club, I figured it’d be okay if I wore some cute lacy dress shorts with a button-up top and flats. we also NEVER had walk ins. I even checked the shorts length using the “tip of the middle finger” measurement they taught girls in school to make sure they weren’t too short. Anyway, my boss came in that day wearing a -literal swimsuit cover up- as a dress and immediately told me to go home and change because my shorts were too short. 🙃 I ended up quitting after 3 months, if you can imagine all the other bullshit she put me through.

We were allowed to wear skirts with opaque tights underneath them. One day, when I was wearing a cute skirt and gray tights, the vice principal told me that my tights weren’t “opaque enough to compensate for my short skirt”. Somehow she didn’t understand that they were gray and not translucent black. I was sent to detention for the first time in my life, where the monitor told me he really couldn’t see what the problem was with my outfit. I had to spend my 15th birthday in detention anyway.

In middle school the dress code said that your shorts had to line up with your fingertips. However, some of the teachers interpreted the rule as the shorts had to be knee length. Essentially it was the same thing unless you had long legs like me. I got stopped in the hallway by a teacher I'd never met because my denim shorts (which lined up with my fingertips) were too short because they didn't come down to my knees. While the teacher was busy lecturing me about it I watched at least 4 of the "populr" girls pass behind her wearing Sofee shorts.

I went to a school with a uniform dress code where we had to tie our hair up. One of the most ridiculous parts of the code was that the girls had to always pin back the natural pieces of hair that grows in front of our ears?!

They said it was to make us look neater, but it was so distracting trying to keep these thin pieces of hair pinned up; we all eventually rebelled, seeing as we were self-conscious teenage girls who felt even more uncomfortable thinking that they were walking around looking like gel-haired bond villains.

As a bonus con, I lost more hairpins than I can count from this whispy hair, dumb-ruled bullshittery.

For wearing shorts slightly above the knee during P.E. Mind you, the boys in my class were wearing shorts far tighter AND shorter than mine, so short that you could see the mouse peeking out of the house but nobody said anything. They said it was different because I'm a girl but at least my junk wasn't hanging out.

​

Also, one of my friends who is Tanzanian went back to her country and got a nose stud. It was more of a cultural traditional thing and she was 18 when she got it. Our Vice principal came to our class and told her to take it out. This was far before it had fully healed and the piercing was hook-like. My friend's nose was bleeding for the rest of the day and we had to find and sterilize a pin to keep it from closing up (It wasn't smart at all but it was the least we could do)

not me, but a friend of mine got dress coded in middle school for wearing jeans that were “too tight”. keep in mind, skinny jeans were completely allowed at my school, and her’s didn’t have any rips that would’ve been a problem. also the women who dress coded her was wearing one of those skin-tight dresses that was definitely more scandalous than this girl’s pants.

I stuck to dress code pretty religiously, was never into fashion so I just wore the same collared shirts and denim jeans every day without an issue.

And then I got called in for my denim jeans. Everyone wore denim jeans at the time, they fell under the color scheme of our dress code which was navy blue, maroon, khaki or white. My pants were "too light" according to the teacher so she sent me to the Dean's office.

Dean was talking some other kid's ear off when I got there so I had to get wait a while, and then she turned to me when she was done and was like "And what did you do?" I told her my pants were too light, she looked me over once and groaned and said "Go back to class." So I guess some teachers are a little too trigger-happy

I went to a court and seen a man in a white shirt get kicked out of his court date for not dressing to code. This is wrong in so many levels, if you ask me. I still think about the law not upholding the law to this day.

I've only ever been dress coded at work because the dress code is casual but there are grey areas and at the time I had a very old-school, traditional manager that thought everyone (men and women, he gave the guys just as much shit, if not more so) should be dressing well. So basically he took the grey areas of the dress code and interpreted them more strictly. Anyway, one day I wore an H&M t-shirt that was more of a boxy/loose fit in a kind of rayon material. I was pulled aside and told it looked "too much like a t-shirt" and to not wear it again. Needless to say I was a bit dumbfounded and put up a bit of a fuss.

That is why if you're going to have a dress code, you need to be as specific as possible.

I work for a pizza place and once I came to work wearing a t shirt that went down a few inches down my collarbone. I was told it was a bit too short and more blue than grey (uniform) so I had to take it off and put on a work shirt. Well, the work shirt not only showed a shit ton of cleavage and was tight on me, but it said “GO DEEP” riiight where my boobs are. Yep.

Back in middle school, my homeroom teacher dress coded me for wearing mismatched socks. Had to call my mom to bring me a new pair. Never mind the classmate in the micro mini, socks that don't match are far, far worse.

In middle school I had a pair of jeans that had slits up the sides from my ankles to an inch below my knee. My principle dress coded me saying that the jeans were too suggestive and violated the finger tip length rule. When I laid my hands down my side there was a clear separation. Mind you girls at my school wore booty shorts and never got dress coded. I called the principal a pervert and told him he could call my mother and tell her why he thought my pants were inappropriate. He made me change into my gym shorts. Which were shorter than the slits on my pants.

Freshman year of high school: As I took my backpack off my shrug that was over a dress came off partly with it and the principal saw and not only dress coded me but made my mom bring me a change of clothes even though with the shrug it was 100% within dress code. What made it even more ridiculous was it was outside before the bell when people were allowed to use phones and chew gum and break other school rules and it was off for maybe 5 seconds.

We had a principle who would have girls unzip their hoodies to make sure that their tops were appropriate.
I also had a shirt for a local band called Life All Over and I was told it was inappropriate because it was threatening. My brother wore it the next day and had conversation with this principal and he said nothing to him.

I went to a super strict catholic school for most of my childhood that required skirts for the girls. These skirts didn't have belt loops and I was a ridiculously tiny 10 year old and we literally couldn't find a skirt that fit my waist while also fitting in with the length rule so my mom just had me wear the pants that the boys would wear. Which was apparently a big no-no for the new principal because I kept getting detention for being out of dress code for wearing pants (boys only apparently), having a skirt that was too short, wearing shorts under the too short skirt or having a skirt that was too big around the waist and kept slipping down. Also got in trouble for altering the uniform when my aunt tried to make a skirt that would fit. Catholic school was a whole nightmare.

I had to wear a polo shirt in high school and we could wear plain white undershirts under it if we wanted to. I wore one and I guess one day the sleeve of my undershirt was a little longer than my polo sleeve so you could see some of the white peeking out from under. Got dress coded by my math teacher.

In middle school I had a t-shirt style shirt that was made of a sheer material in the back and normal in the front. I wore a tank top underneath too so nothing could be seen. My science teacher sent me in the office in the middle of class. They made me change into an old used gym uniform that reeked and had the word “office” written big on the front in market. It was humiliating and I had to wear it all day. If that wasn’t enough, when I went at the end of the day to get my shirt back, it had magically gotten stains all over it despite sitting on the front desk all day. It was brand new.

I worked at a video rental store exactly like Blockbuster. We had to wear business casual, no sneakers, also no chairs in the building. My feet KILLED at the end of every shift. We could only wear dress pants, skirts or dresses. I once wore a denim button up collared shirt with a tube skirt and got in trouble for wearing denim. It felt crazy because it wasn’t like they were denim pants, it was a shirt, especially for a video rental store.

I wore a tank top under my coveralls when it was 90° inside the trailer we used to collect data in the field. Meanwhile, the guys were shirtless. My boss backed me up on it, but it still pisses me off to this day. I got harassed enough just for how my body looked in zipped up coveralls that were 2 sizes too big.

i was wearing dress code appropriate shorts at school and got dress coded for “showing too much leg”. when i put my arms down at my sides and showed them that the shorts were indeed past my fingertips, as per the dress code, the teacher argued that my legs were long, and therefore showed “too much skin”. i got sent home and missed a day of school because “boys might be distracted from their education”.

Once I walked into school wearing black skinny jeans and the assistant principal said “oh my GOD what are you wearing?” And I was like “jeans?” And she was like “do they have pockets?” And I told her yes and she said “okay well they’re loose enough to wear right now but don’t wear them back to school”. Apparently if you have pockets it’s okay 🤷🏻‍♀️

I got dress coded for wearing a tank top with my jacket literally zipped up almost the whole way. My teacher noticed it was a tank top and she pulled me over and said ¨this is not a beach¨ she then went on how it wasn´t acceptable to wear and that it wasn´t healthy for me.

Wearing a black trenchcoat to school when it was raining. (this was the day after the Columbine school shooting and the school started suspending/expelling kids wearing black trenchcoats without telling anyone this was the new rule. It was my only coat and I didn't know about the shooting yet. Other color trenchcoats were fine, capes and cloaks were fine, which became the new fashion statement for a while.)

Wearing a tanktop shirt with another shirt under it (tanktops were forbidden, but tube tops were not, so lots of girls wore tank tops then if they saw a teacher quickly took off the straps and tucked them in).

In gym class: not wearing a bra, then apparently wearing a bra that was too see-through, then wearing a red bra, then wearing a tank top between my bra and shirt.

Wearing combat boots to gym (I didn't have any other shoes and couldn't afford any and told my teacher this).

Wearing a scarf on my head apparently counts as a hat and thus is forbidden.

Had to turn my art club shirt inside out because it was a graphic military dude holding a giant sharpie. I see where they were coming from but it was a school shirt and did not have a gun on it anywhere.

In school I was wearing a bandanna and a hair band, I had folded it into one. It was orange, red, yellow tie-dye. My vice principal told me I had to take it off because it was gang related. Needless to say as a young dumb teenager I said no, it’s clearly not and I’m not even wearing it as a real bandanna. I was suspended for a day

When we played netball as pre teens we would have a bloomer / knicker checks to make sure they were the uniform colour ( because while running around flashing your undies in a skirt was only acceptable if it was the right colour. If they werent we werent allowed to play.

I was a temp at a book factory, and one day they had me lead a small team to consolidate and get rid of anything misprinted or out of date. I'm in a big huge cardboard box, tossing things into another box. Got sweaty, took off my over shirt. I was wearing a regular tank top, with a bra, it wasn't even against the rules. Boss got onto me about it. That was my last day.

I went to a high school in which we had uniforms, we were required to wear the shirt and pants, once me and a bunch of other people were dismissed for wearing sweaters that werent part of the uniform, even though its not obligatory to wear the sweater.

In middle school, an old teacher came into our class and yelled at all the girls to stand up. My ass gets right up, and she points to my baggy black cotton pants I wore and were the same length as all the boy’s shorts in our class, and tells me to go change. I was mad pissed.

I got in trouble in high school while wearing a hoodie, t shirt, and bootcut jeans. Why? Because my butt was "too distracting." I was 15. Fully covered, and not wearing clothing that was too tight.....I just have a booty. 😑

Having large breasts. I don't wear revealing or tight clothes, but was told that I needed to wear baggier shirts so as not to look revealing. Other women wore way more revealing things. My cleavage never showed, nor did I wear anything tight at all.

I wore high waisted jeans with a slim fit T-shirt to high school one time. I walked over to the door to my History class and some student shut the door in my face. I quickly stop the door from hitting me by lifting my arms up and stretching over the door’s window while I held the huge door in position. The teacher saw my shirt lifted up a tinny bit by the extreme pose, exposing a little skin from my stomach. She said that if the shirt was actually school appropriate, it would not show skin while I did any movement. I LITERALLY LIFT MY ARMS UP LIKE A CRAZY MANIAC TO PREVENT A HUGE DOOR FROM HITING ME. I ENDED UP IN A HALF SPLIT WITH MY ARMS RAISED AND SHE WAS WORRIED ABOUT MY T SHIRT EXPOSING A LITTLE SKIN IN MY STOMACH? But that’s okay, the preppy girls can wear short shorts with half their checks flying around just as long as they’re not showing anything else.

Wore a Budweiser skull cap to school as part of a Halloween costume. I was a teenager who liked beer so I didn’t see what the big deal was...my gym teacher told me to take it off. As soon as he walked away I put it back on again, then 5 minutes later he saw me again and confiscated it. Lol

There was no dress code for my highschool. A guy in my class got a speech from one teacher for wearing short jeans (knee long) in a hot day, but we complained that women were allowed to wear shorts and he dropped the argument.

In high school we had to wear ID lanyards. They were only one sided, so half the time they couldn't be read anyway. Well I was wearing a zip hoodie and I had my I'd tucked in, just to stop it from swinging around. You could see the top of the card and the lanyard, so it was clear I was indeed wearing it. A security guard with a power trip write me up for not having it on because the name and photo "wasn't visible". Of course, even if it wasn't tucked in and even if it was facing the right way, he still wouldn't have been able to read it unless he brought it to his face anyway.

I went straight to the office and told them I'd just gotten written up and I was wearing it just like this and had never had a problem. The dean rolled his eyes and ripped it up.

Not me but back in middle school girls had to wear dresses at knee level or below and if it was slightly above at all, they would all get marked for it. One time for picture day over fifteen girls in my class got in trouble for it. The new rule after that was a notecard length above the dress.

I wore a skirt that was to my knees. My teacher said she dress coded me because my skirt was too short. I have a feeling it was actually because I'm 6"0 and have pretty big hips so she deemed that "offensive". She sent me to the office and they just said "why are you here?" Glad the office ladies thought it was ridicilous too.

science teacher who detested me for some reason wanted to send me home right before a field trip to change my black shoes because they had a white stripe on them (rule was shoes had to be black). Seriously, how petty.

Wearing a skirt that was 3.5 inches above my knee rather than 3 inches to high school. I am 5’10” AND was wearing thick black tights underneath. I missed my entire calculus class waiting for my mother to bring opaque black leggings to wear underneath. The worst part was the woman at the front desk thought I was dressed appropriately until she physically measured it with a ruler.

The Converse and Vans logos on my kids shoes have red, this is a uniform infraction according to my kids school. I have to black Sharpe them out when we buy shoes. Black/white shoes only. Socks may not be black and white only black or white. My kids had detention for wearing black and white striped socks.

A different direction than most entries here, but I had a high school teacher that took a part of the student handbook about clothing depicting death too literally (or something like that). So any rock T-shirt I had from a concert with a cartoon devil or even a skeleton was considered against the rules. But she would just call me out in class and look very upset, never got sent to the office or anything.

In middle school we had standardized dress. We could wear white or navy blue collard shirts and black, khaki, or navy blue bottoms (with other restrictions but not relevant to story). I wore a white collard shirt with a black dress over it and my art teacher, who would walk around the hallway with a ruler measuring skirt and shorts lengths, sent me to the office because my dress was black and therefore I was wearing black as a “top” and breaking the dress code. The office thought it was fine and I continued to wear it on the days that I didn’t have art class.

I worked at a very fancy resort hotel with a global reputation for elegance while pregnant with my first. They had no uniforms in my department for pregnant women, so as my belly became larger I was holding my skirt on with the rubberband-to-button method which my jacket completely covered. One morning i am walking through the back halls and I hear the visiting uniform stylist from corporate speaking to our head of uniforms as they were walking behind me. “Now zeeee, zis skirt is much too tight across dee rear!” I was mortified and angry and wanted to turn on them and scream “I am 6 months pregnant!!” but I was too scared to lose my job. Later that week I was finally given a larger skirt. Soon after I again requested maternity wear and was eventually told I could purchase my own uniform as long as it fit some basic color requirements. So I bought the most comfortable items I could find. I did not even consider the prices of my new very comfortable uniform for which I was reimbursed completely. I think I won. ;)

On secondary school i wore a strap top and the teacher told me that it distracted my classmates which was obviously not true until she pointed it out, i told her that i had just lost my sweater during recess and she told me to get off class until i had something on.
:(

On secondary school i wore a strap top and the teacher told me that it distracted my classmates, i told her that i had just lost my sweater and she told me to get off class until i had something on.
:(

Went to a private school and had to buy skirts from a very specific place. The medium was too big on my waist because I’m a literal square, but the small was too short. So I bought the medium because I figured I could just roll it up, but apparently that wasn’t allowed either. When the vp complained I was like, would you rather have it around my ankles? Oh and there was the one time I was dress coded for wearing leggings under my shorts? But regular shorts were fine? Private school was weird.

When I was in middle school the uniform was basically just polo shirt with pants or skirts of specific color, like blue, white, green or red shirt and black, grey or kakhi pants. One day I wore some light grey jeans to school, apparently too light. I was removed from class and they made my mom leave her job across town to bring me other pants.

Not wearing stockings under my skirt. I was working in a supermarket and it was 40 degrees C (104F) with AC that barely worked. Also, I was new and nobody had even told me that was part of the dress code. I got written up for it too.

I got in trouble and told not to wear this particular shirt any more. It said
"Oopsy I said the F word", I told my teacher f for was food. I still wore it but would make sure she didn't notice it by wearing a hoodie or something in her class.

I could never wear normal shorts in high school because my arms are freakishly long and we had the “finger tip” rule. I think often about how nice it is to finally be able to dress comfortably in college.

Elementary school, we had a dress code of white shorts and navy blue pants. This was back in the early 2000s and I remember how hard it was to find navy blue pants in the kid section (many parents complained about this at first because of the demand and lack of navy pants in stores). I had one pair of pants in a soft fabric which was a greyish dark blue. I wore it many times to school and no one said anything for the longest time. Then one day a salty teacher points me out in front of the whole class and asks "TigerLilly, what colour are your pants?" To which I reply "navy blue?". She laughs and says "no! Those are greyish blue! Not navy blue" (class laughs) "don't let me catch you wearing those again or you'll be sent to the principal's office!" I tell my mom this and she gets upset because I wore those pants so many times and it was ok those days.

In Jr high, we had a dress code for 1 year before it turned to a uniform. The dress code was white blouses and black dress pants. We weren't allowed to wear jeans, "Jean look alikes", or cordaroys. But leggings were fine... (Guess why they opted for a uniform the year after). The vice principal was a bit of a douche bag, and basically any pants he didn't like were jeans or "Jean look alikes" if you argued with him. He called out one girl for wearing felt pants that fitted her well. Her and her friends were trying to tell the guy they weren't jeans and to just feel the material of the pants to know for sure. He didn't care, said they look like jeans to him and wrote her up (they didn't). Another time my friend and I were late for school and she was wearing corduroy pants (idk why they banned those pants tbh). We were waiting in line for a late slip when the vice principal shows up to do a dress code check. He takes one look at my friend and yells "ah! We're wearing jeans today aren't we mispronounces friend's name ? IN MY OFFICE NOW!!!!" I heard my friend mutter under her breath while walking away "fuck you".

Im in europe and in school theres not really a dress code, just limits, but it isnt the exageration of american schools ive seen, jesus christ. One day though, it was a special day, we have a tradition, its like mardi gras, where you dress up as something and party, in school would dress all almost the same, with clothes made out of paper and shit, and we would parade around the city. Turns out me and my parents didnt got the memo that the kids had to go all in green, to get dressed up as trees(?), so i went as red riding hood, it was like i offended their all ancestries, oh well.

I got in trouble at work (a casual family restaurant attached to a mall) because my socks and pants didn’t meet. There was a tiny sliver of my ankle showing and I was told that it was unacceptable and that I should go get proper socks on my break.

Happened to me at work...HR lady tried to tell me that my pregnancy bump was making my dress too short in the front. It was an asymetric cut. Front was shorter cut, knee length, back was maxi length. My boss told her that it was fingertip length per the handbook and shove it. I felt grossed out. Wish I would have reported her, I was 7 months pregnant.

I was standing in line in the cafeteria next to a girl who was half a foot taller than me wearing the same exact v-neck shirt I was. One of the administrators walked up to me and said, "you need to go to the office, you're in violation of the dress code." To which I replied, "we're standing right next to each other in the same shirt." His reply was, "Well, I can't see down her shirt." At this point, I was fuming and said, "well maybe you shouldn't be trying to look down mine."

I was sent to the office, I made my case to my Dean was told that I was too short to wear v-neck shirts. I got written up for "talking back" and I was forced to wear my coat for the rest of the day in a non air-conditioned school in August so that was awesome.

I was told I needed to "dress more feminine" by the head of HR, who was also a woman.

Please note I wore the company shirts they required us to buy and black slacks. Not fancy, but never unprofessional or unkempt. Also, I was back-office admin and never saw customers. I felt like I was in an episode of Mad Men when she told me that...

Work changed the dresscode to be more 'yourself' at work and included things like shorts/dresses/skirts. So I read the rules VERY carefully. And comply in my skirt. First thing Not-My-Manager says? Skirts too short. I point out the exact rules(I was 100% within bounds) and she dragged another manager(male go figure) and wants to know if HE thinks I'm out of uniform. Not only did he say no I'm not but then proceeded to ask both why she thought I was and what the official rule was. She had 0 things to say about my neon yellow , fluffy, shorter dress down the road lol it even had capped sleeves. Fight me Lady!

I got a talking to because I don't wear bras and apparently men were discussing amongst themselves as to why I might not wear one. I wear baggy clothes to work to avoid this and usual wear sweaters, but work with all men (I'm literally the only female). The funny thing is that there are men who wear the work shirts with the buttons half undone so all their chest hair and inner man-tits are exposed.

I complained about it not being fair that I have to wear 2+ shirts and/or a bra while the men can have their chest and half their bellies exposed. Soon after all the men who had their shirts unbuttoned were wearing shirts underneath.

It's still stupid. I walk in ways and carry myself so that it's not obvious that I'm not wearing a bra, and I have a smaller chest so when I wear baggy shirts it's really not obvious. So in the summer I'm going to say fuck this two shirt thing and just make them deal with it. I shouldn't have to suffer because they don't understand how to comprehend and be adults about beasts.

In 9th grade, it was the beginning of summer (probably end of June or beginning of July). This day was quite hot, and I was wearing jeans and a t shirt that was a bit too large, and would often slip off one of my shoulder. So you could see one of my bra straps. Then that very mean counselor that I had literally never seen before told me « Hide me this bra’s strap, you look extremely indecent ». I cried but was quickly comforted by my friends, and just forgot about the whole thing. Anyway, 2 or 3 days later, the weather was even hotter, so I wore a dress (literally just a little bit above my knees). I had no boobs at the time (still searching for those) and the cleavage of the dress wasn’t even that provocative or anything. The only problem was that the straps of the dress were quite thin and you could see a little bit of my bra’s straps (it was the same colors as the dress though) and guess what ? While I was in class, the exact same counselor came to do some kind of announcement and when she saw me.... She got infuriated, telling me that she had already talked to me about this « problem » and that I had no excuse. She demanded me to stand up so everyone could see how « indecent » I looked. I didn’t stand up, not because i was courageous, but because I was so afraid I literally could not move. She then left, and my teacher who had seen me the whole day and hadn’t said anything said « Well, she isn’t wrong, it’s a little bit indecent... ». Then some people from the class actually took my defense which was pretty sweet. A boy told me to wear no bra at all the next time to avoid problems. Anyways, my mom wrote a note to the headmaster about the whole thing but nothing really happened. Really traumatized me, I still remember the whole incident even though it’s been some years now.

My shorts, always. I live in florida and as a middle schooler, and high schooler, I had long legs because i am tall. In high school, the dean of girls ALWAYS stopped me for finger tip checks. I almost always didn't pass and would have to be sent home for a change. I gave up and would just suffer ithe heat and wear jeans year round. My shorts were never super short--they were just not half way down to my knees. Hard to find shorts in that fit back then.

My first and only detention was my senior year of high school. It was because I was wearing black jeans with stitched pockets on the butt.
Per school dress code, pants were supposed to be slack material and if there MUST be back pockets, they had to be the slit that had the form inside, no visible marks. (So they basically wanted me to buy a $60 pair of jeans.)
I got away with wearing those jeans for 6 months (and my full junior year), but then 3 months from graduation, I got detention.

in high school i never wore dresses or skirts but the ONE day i did bc i had something to do before school, i got i.s.s. for my skirt being half an inch too short. and yes i had to stand there and let them measure it lol

This never happened to me but multiple friends of mine. In high school, our vice principle would ask random girls to bend over and if she could see panty lines, then they had to change. It was ironic because you could always see the vice principles panty lines every day.

My nail polish color. My work had a policy that only "neutral" colors could be used. I rarely wear polish but was preparing for a beach vacation the next day so painted them a light green color. My manager didn't care about that kind of stuff, but one of the other women at work lectured me. My department was all men so I usually just heard stories about the dress code violations and it was mostly women reporting on other women.

My high school had a relatively lax dress code and I didn't wear much more than sweatshirt & jeans, but one thing that got me was the way the cheerleaders' uniforms were treated. Usually during the football season, the football boys wore their jersey and the cheerleaders wore their uniform to school on Fridays. My senior year, we weren't allowed to wear our cheer uniform to school because it "wasn't appropriate." Like, what? You guys were the one who made the decision to buy these uniforms! We didn't choose these! Also, we're going to be wearing them at a school function tonight, so what's the big deal?

Our uniforms were long sleeved but our skirts were barely finger tip length, so I can kind of see their point. But again... it was our SCHOOL uniform. They didn't want our scandalous, scandalous legs to distract the boys during school hours, I guess.

Similar to other posts here, we had a rule where your bottoms needed to be longer than your finger tips, and one day I was forced to change out of my jean skit in to my gym shorts. I was a 5'8 gangly teenager with long arms and my fingertips were even farther below the hem of my gym shorts than that skirt. Made no sense!

Highschool, I was walking down the hall with my friend. I had a shirt that the neckline stopped at around my armpit level, well above the cleavage line. My friend was wearing a shirt where it was much lower, definitely some cleavage out. I was the one who was told to zip up my jacket.

Flip flops. I didn't realize we could only wear them to work if they had embellishments on them. I was sent home for the day...I actually had a change of shoes in the car but I was like eh w.e. and went home.

One time when I was a freshman in high school, I got dress coded for wearing my casual marching band uniform that we were required to wear because the shorts came to my mid thigh. Trust me, I didn’t WANT to be wearing khaki straight leg uniform shorts to school as a 14 year old girl.